Metal-Organic Frameworks: Chemistry's New Miracle Materials for Water and Energy
Metal-Organic Frameworks, Chemistry's New Miracle Materials
I explore how Metal-Organic Frameworks, or MOFs, act as ultra-porous sponges capable of harvesting water from desert air and capturing carbon emissions. Pioneered by Omar Yaghi through reticular chemistry, these revolutionary materials offer scalable solutions for global water scarcity and environmental challenges, with applications ranging from drug delivery to clean energy.
When I first started in the field of chemistry, I didn't go in it to solve society's problems. I wanted to be left alone, actually.
- tastyfreeze
I first read about MOFs a few years ago when searching for methods of converting methane into methanol or other high value compounds. They really sound like sci-fi materials. The perfect tailored catalyst for many reactions with astounding efficiency and selectivity. I would agree that they really are miracle materials. Hopefully they will be easy to produce and cheap so we can get on with building transmutation machines. One compound in and another out.
- ChrisArchitect
(2018) Maybe say something about why you submitted this now OP?
But more recently, this went on to win the 2025 Nobel Prize in Chemistry https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/chemistry/2025/popular-inf... (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45514164)
- _JamesA_
From the "Fall 2018 Culture Shift" issue of California Magazine.