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.

A material to save the world?

November 6, 2018

MOF diagram by Mathieu Provet, UC Berkeley.Metal-organic frameworks are compounds that are set to solve some tough challenges: producing water in the desert, removing greenhouse gases from the air and storing dangerous gases more safely.

Omar Yaghi wins BBVA Frontiers of Knowledge Award in the Basic Sciences

January 23, 2018

Omar YaghiThe BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in the Basic Sciences category goes, in this tenth edition, to Jordanian-American chemist Omar Yaghi, “for his pioneering work in the conception and synthesis of new...

Meet Metal-Organic Frameworks, Chemistry’s New Miracle Materials

September 20, 2018

MOFS float above the desert. Photo courtesy California Magazine.

Metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) are a revolutionary new class of crystalline solids that can be designed to trap myriad kinds of matter, including greenhouse gases, or to be used as nanosized drug carriers. They can also pull water from desert air.

Professors Omar Yaghi and Michael O’Keeffe receive award from the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences

September 19, 2018

Array of Lithium Ion batteries stacked side by side.The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has awarded the 2019 Gregori Aminoff Prize in Crystallography to Michael O’Keeffe, Arizona State University, and Omar M. Yaghi, University of California, “for their fundamental contributions to the development of reticular chemistry”.

Getting a charge out of MOFs

August 24, 2018


metal-organic frameworkUC Berkeley researchers have developed a modular metal-organic framework with the highest electron charge mobilities ever observed. A research team led by Jeffrey Long has developed a technique for making an electrically conductive MOF that could also be used to improve the conductivity of other MOFs.

Omar Yaghi wins 2018 Eni Energy Transition Award

July 23, 2018


Omar YaghiEni has announced the winners of the 11th edition of the Eni Award. Omar Yaghi has received this year's Energy Transition Award. Over the years, the award, established in 2007, has become an international point of reference for research in the energy and environmental sectors. The Eni Award aims to reflect the importance of scientific research and innovation, promoting a better use of energy sources and encouraging a new generation of researchers.

Feodor Lynen fellow Domink Halter joins research group of Jeffrey Long

July 13, 2018


Boreskov Institute of CatalysisDr. Dominik Halter has been awarded a Feodor Lynen fellowship by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, to join the chemistry research group of Professor Jeffrey Long as a postdoctoral researcher. Halter’s research at Berkeley will focus on the development of new metal-organic frameworks with coordinatively unsaturated metal sites for hydrogen storage and catalysis.

Water harvester delivers fresh water from air

June 8, 2018


Markus Kalmutzki, Farhad Fathieh and Eugene Kapustin set up the water harvester. (Stephen McNally photo)A UC Berkeley team headed by Omar Yaghi plopped their newest prototype water harvester into the backyard of a tract home in Arizona and started sucking water out of the air without any power other than sunlight.

Professors Omar Yaghi and Evelyn Wang awarded international water prize

June 21, 2018


Yaghi and Wang awarded international water prizeThe team of Professors Omar Yaghi (UC Berkeley) and Evelyn Wang (MIT) have won the Alternative Water Resources prize, which will be awarded at the United Nations Headquarters in New York City.

Atmospheric harvesters will enable arid nations to drink from thin air

May 3, 2018

Omar YaghiA newly developed sorbent-based alternative has recently shown that it can harvest atmospheric moisture even when the relative humidity drops to around 10 percent. Under those conditions, that works out to around three liters of water for every million...