MOFs / COFs

COFs and their cousin materials, metal organic frameworks (MOFs), are porous three-dimensional crystals with extraordinarily large internal surface areas that can absorb and store enormous quantities of targeted molecules. Invented by UC Berkeley's Professor Omar Yaghi, COFs and MOFs consist of molecules (organics for COFs and metal-organics for MOFs) that are stitched into large and extended netlike frameworks whose structures are held together by strong chemical bonds. Such frameworks show great promise for, among other applications, carbon sequestration.

Omar Yaghi wins prestigious Tang Prize for Sustainable Development

June 18, 2024
Yaghi wins in recognition of his groundbreaking efforts founding and advancing the field of reticular chemistry.

Capturing wellhead gases for profit and a cleaner environment

November 13, 2023
UC Berkeley chemists have now come up with a simple and green way to convert these gases — primarily methane and ethane — into economically valuable liquids, mostly alcohols like methanol and ethanol.

ChatGPT accelerates chemistry discovery for climate response, study shows

August 7, 2023
UC Berkeley experts taught ChatGPT how to quickly create datasets on difficult-to-aggregate research about certain materials that can be used to fight climate change, according to a new paper published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.

Hand-held water harvester powered by sunlight could combat water scarcity

July 6, 2023

Omar Yaghi

Omar Yaghi, the inventor of MOFs, led the study on MOF-powered water harvesters that was published July 6 in Nature Water. (Photo courtesy of Omar Yaghi)

UC Berkeley researchers have designed an extreme-weather proven, hand-held device that can extract and convert water molecules from the air into drinkable water using only ambient sunlight as its energy source, a...

Omar Yaghi awarded the inaugural VinFuture Special Prize

January 24, 2022

Omar Yaghi at the VinFuture award ceremony - Vietnam

The first Special Prize, dedicated to “Innovators with Outstanding Achievements in Emerging Fields”, is awarded to Professor Omar Yaghi (USA) for his work on discovering metal-organic frameworks. — Photo courtsey VinFuture Prize

The first VinFuture Special Prize for Innovators with...

ExxonMobil collaborates on discovery of new material to enhance carbon capture technology

August 2, 2021

Researching the development of a sustainable energy future

Scientists from ExxonMobil, University of California, Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have discovered a new material that could capture more than 90 percent of CO2 emitted from industrial sources, such as natural gas-fired power plants, using low-temperature steam,...

Omar Yaghi receives the Gerhard Ertl Lecture Award

July 13, 2021

Omar Yaghi

The 14th Gerhard Ertl Lecture Award goes to Omar M. Yaghi, Professor of Chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley, and elected member of the US National Academy of Sciences. The Award Committee, comprised of jurors Prof. Dr. Joachim Sauer (...

Portable oasis: GE and its partners plan to build a box to produce water from air

March 23, 2021

Test of water extracted from air

Image courtesy of GE.

Keeping enemies on the run is all part of the job for soldiers in the U.S. Army, yet troops stationed in the world’s hot spots frequently face another relentless foe: thirst. But scientists at GE Research and their partners at U.S. universities including ...

A sponge to soak up carbon dioxide in the air

February 22, 2021

smokestacks

Berkeley Lab is pursuing a portfolio of negative emissions technologies and related research to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. (Photo courtesy Jeffrey Reimer)

Human activity is now leading to the equivalent of 40 billion tons of carbon dioxide emitted into the atmosphere each year, putting us on track to increase the planet’s temperature by 1.5 degrees Celsius over...

A network of cubes opens the door for new COF chemistry

October 29, 2020

illustration of a newly designed COF is composed of repeating borophosphonate cubes linked at the vertices

A new covalent organic framework uses boron and phosphorus to make complex connections. This new COF is composed of repeating borophosphonate cubes linked at the vertices. O = red; B = pink; P...