Trio win Nobel chemistry prize for work on 'Hermione's handbag' materials

Metal-organic frameworks , for which Susumu Kitagawa , Richard Robson , and Omar M Yaghi were awarded the 2025 Nobel Prize in Chemistry , have been compared to the magical handbag carried by Hermione Granger, one of the three central characters in author JK Rowling's "Harry Potter" series.

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The comparison was made by Olof Ramström, a member of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry.

"The frameworks can be compared to the timber framework of a house, and Hermione’s famous beaded handbag, in that they are small on the outside but very large on the inside," Ramström told The Associated Press.

The Nobel Committee described the trio’s work as "ground-breaking discoveries," noting that “some of these may contribute to solving some of humankind’s greatest challenges.”

The work that won the Nobel Prize

Although the chemists worked independently, their discoveries built on one another, beginning in 1989 with Robson.

From capturing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to extracting water from arid desert air, the trio’s new form of molecular architecture can absorb and contain gases within highly stable structures.

Why it matters

“Metal-organic frameworks have enormous potential, bringing previously unforeseen opportunities for custom-made materials with new functions,” Heiner Linke, chair of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry, said in a news release.

The committee highlighted the frameworks’ ability to remove so-called “forever chemicals” from water.

Perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, are a group of chemicals that have existed for decades and have now spread into air, water, and soil.

Last year’s Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to biochemist David Baker and computer scientists Demis Hassabis and John Jumper for developing powerful techniques to decode and design novel proteins, the building blocks of life. Using advanced technologies, including artificial intelligence, their work holds the potential to transform the creation of new drugs and other materials.