Metal-Organic Frameworks, Chemistry's New Miracle Materials (2018)

(chemistry.berkeley.edu)

50 points by andsoitis6 hours ago

12 comments

tastyfreeze5 hours ago
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.
robk14 minutes ago
Cusp AI is doing interesting things in this space
_JamesA_5 hours ago
From the "Fall 2018 Culture Shift" issue of California Magazine.
motoboi5 hours ago
> He’s also in the conversation for a Nobel.How does that work, actually?
- lern_too_spel5 hours ago
 He was awarded the Prize in 2025 for his work on MOFs. I assume this old article was posted because of <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-026-02143-x" rel="nofollow">https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-026-02143-x</a>.
 - kreelman14 minutes ago
 Climbing up on a soap box....I'd really like it if the United States could very soon get rid of or at the very least eventually vote out Donald Trump.The Nature article points to the MOF Nobel prize winner going to China. I gather this is because science is getting defunded in the US? I think defunding science shows an incredibly short term view and damages the future for the world, starting with America.Have a look at this video by the Australian Economics professor, Justin Wolfers, working in the US, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkUEVl8uamM" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkUEVl8uamM</a>I know there are problems with the US democracy that have been in play for decades. There is inequality, there is racism and religious bias... I think throwing out the entire system that largely worked doesn't solve these problems and in fact makes the future worse for our kids. The video above argues that the damage done now to universities will be noticeable in decades time. Even doing a large funding push to universities may not fully repair the damage being done now.The US is not a perfect place nor a perfect actor, but when governed reasonably I think it is better than China in terms of its aims, philosophies and interactions. Hopefully his work done in China will be shared globally.
ChrisArchitect3 hours ago
(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 <a href="https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/chemistry/2025/popular-information/" rel="nofollow">https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/chemistry/2025/popular-inf...</a> (<a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45514164">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45514164</a>)
- raincom3 hours ago
 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry Omar M. Yaghi joins Tsinghua University full-time <a href="https://www.tsinghua.edu.cn/en/info/1244/14984.htm" rel="nofollow">https://www.tsinghua.edu.cn/en/info/1244/14984.htm</a>
chairhairair5 hours ago
This is from 2018
- gjmulhol4 hours ago
  Not only is this from 2018, but Yaghi himself demonstrated MOFs in 1995 so "new" is pretty relative.
westurner4 hours ago
MOF or COF for quantum computing?Maybe "Radical COFs" or "Spintronic COFs", or Carbon-Linked Covalent Organic Frameworks for Spintronics, e.g. GQD Graphene Quantum Dots; GQD-COFs
cactusfrog3 hours ago
Zeolites are better
ottotarc4 hours ago
[dead]
darkssel5 hours ago
[flagged]