As a former supramolecular chemist, I was delighted to see that
the 2025 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded for the development
of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) – and even more thrilled
that Professor Richard Robson, who co-supervised my Honours
project, was one of the three laureates. Professor Robson, together
with Susumu Kitagawa and Omar M. Yaghi, was recognised for
pioneering a new class of porous materials that has reshaped our
understanding of solid-state chemistry.
As their name suggests, metal-organic frameworks are crystalline
materials made of metal ions or clusters connected via organic
linker molecules to form three-dimensional frameworks. Both the
metal ion and the organic linker building blocks can be varied,
resulting in a huge range of possible structures with properties
that are tuneable "on demand".
Since their discovery in the 1980s, MOFs have attracted intense
research attention, largely owing to their ultrahigh porosity. They
possess the largest internal surface area of any known material, in
some cases exceeding 6000 square metres per gram – almost the
size of a football field. Such levels of porosity were once thought
impossible in crystalline solids, which traditionally rely on
tightly packed molecular arrangements to achieve stability.
The large cavities present in MOFs make them promising candidates
for a diverse range of sustainable technologies. MOFs possessing
high surface areas and open metal sites have been designed for use
in carbon dioxide capture and sequestration. Hydrogen storage is
another promising application, where MOFs have demonstrated
significant uptake of H2 gas under mild conditions. In
environmental applications, MOFs can remove pollutants from
wastewater, with tailored pore chemistries enabling selective
uptake of contaminants. In addition, many MOFs have been employed
as heterogeneous catalysts, owing to their accessible active sites
and tuneable internal structures.
The surge of interest in MOFs has resulted in an expanding
ecosystem of start ups working to translate academic breakthroughs
into scalable solutions. A particularly compelling example is the
Cambridge-based start-up Immaterial, founded in 2015 by Professor David
Fairen-Jimenez.
Immaterial
has tackled one of the core limitations of MOFs: the fact that they
are typically produced as fine crystalline powders, which are
difficult to pack, transport, or incorporate into industrial
reactors. Conventional methods for pelletising MOF powders require
the use of binders and high-pressure processes, which causes a
sharp drop in porosity.
Immaterial has developed a platform for producing monolithic MOFs,
which are dense, macroscopic crystals that preserve the high
porosity of powders while offering enhanced mechanical stability,
improved performance in adsorption and separation, as well as
greater ease of handling and integration into commercial systems.
Using this patented technology, the company is engineering custom
MOFs tailored to specific industrial requirements, from gas capture
modules to next generation storage media.
The company combines its wet-lab production capabilities with
computational modelling to facilitate the digital discovery and
design of MOFs that meet specific customer requirements.
Immaterial's trajectory has been impressive. It has recently
secured significant venture funding – reported at
approximately £13.5M – and is now looking to scale-up
production and begin supplying materials directly to partner
sites.
Thanks to companies like Immaterial, the once academic field of MOF
chemistry is entering a phase of real-world deployment, with
engineered MOFs poised to play an increasingly central role in
carbon capture, green gas storage, and next generation separation
processes. The rapid evolution of MOF chemistry, from its
conceptual origins in the 1980s to today's industrial scale
breakthroughs, highlights how fundamental research can shape the
technologies that drive a more sustainable future.
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