Watch the talk of the TUM-IAS Wednesday Coffee Talk “Metal-Organic Frameworks have been knighted! The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2025” by Roland A. Fischer

On 12 November 2025, Roland A. Fischer (Department of Chemistry, TUM Catalysis Research Centre) talked about “Metal-Organic Frameworks have been knighted! The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2025”.

Abstract: Susumu Kitagawa (Kyoto), Omar M. Yaghi (Berkeley) and Richard Robson (Melbourne) received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2005. The laureates “have created molecular constructions with large spaces through which gases and other chemicals can flow. These constructions, metal–organic frameworks (MOFs), can be used to harvest water from desert air, capture carbon dioxide, store toxic gases or catalyze chemical reaction. They have developed a new form of molecular architecture. In their constructions, metal ions function as cornerstones that are linked by long organic (carbon-based) molecules. Together, the metal ions and molecules are organized to form crystals that contain large cavities. By varying the building blocks used in the MOFs, chemists can design them to capture and store specific substances. MOFs can also drive chemical reactions or conduct electricity.” Cited from the press-release: https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/chemistry/2025/press-release/.

I came across MOFs purely by accident – about 20 years ago. Having been trained as an organometallic chemist by the former TUM President Wolfgang A. Herrmann in the tradition of Nobel Laureate Ernst-Otto-Fischer, two things have not been on my radar: When I enrolled at TUM in fall 1981, it is save to state, that the solid state of matter was absent in teaching and mostly in research as well. Precisely, organometallics, the domain of the metal to carbon bond in molecules, is the foundation science of selective organic synthesis enabled by catalysis solution. Coordination chemistry, metal-organic chemistry in a general sense, was largely absent at TUM in these days, too. Particularly, we graduate students or junior faculty would not recognize the fantastic opportunities of tailoring not only chemical but also physical properties of materials by molecular design using the principles of coordination chemistry. Luckily, I was promoted to jump into MOFs in 2003/2004 by a meeting with industrial partners – it changed my whole research agenda!

In my talk I would like to share with you my fascination with the chemistry of coordination space, designing voids, pores, channels and their multifunctionality in solid-state molecular network materials. Why are MOFs so unique? What exactly is the intellectual beauty and the scientific depth behind these materials? Why the hype? Will MOFs save the world? Anyway, at least here is a promise: you too will get MOF addicted.

Related Press-Release: Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2025

THE TUM-IAS WEDNESDAY COFFEE TALKS

Every Wednesday after lunch, it's all about a new topic - current research highlights at TUM, insights into the work of our Fellows from all over the world, sometimes even topics not usually found at TUM, such as history or theology.

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