The molecular sponges finally leaving the laboratory
Image: BASF
For decades, metal-organic frameworks were manufactured in laboratories and discussed largely in terms of what they might eventually do. Now BASF has established the capacity to produce them at a scale of several hundred tonnes per year for carbon-capture applications, while British manufacturer Promethean Particles says it has delivered four tonnes for a European gas-storage project.
Metal-organic frameworks, usually abbreviated to MOFs, contain networks of microscopic pores designed to capture particular molecules. Scientists have created tens of thousands of them and proposed applications ranging from carbon capture and hydrogen storage to atmospheric water harvesting.
Only a small number have become commercial products. Designing empty space at a molecular scale turns out to be easier than manufacturing it cheaply, shaping it into useful components and keeping it working inside industrial machinery.
What are metal-organic frameworks?
A metal-organic framework is constructed from two main ingredients. Metal ions or clusters act as connecting points, while carbon-based organic molecules form links between them.
These components assemble into ordered crystalline networks containing vast numbers of tiny cavities. Changing the metal, the molecular connector or the way they fit together alters the size and chemistry of those pores.
The result is something like a molecular construction set. Chemists can design a framework with openings that admit one molecule but exclude another, or line its internal walls with chemical groups that attract a particular gas.
This internal space gives some MOFs an extraordinary surface area. A single gram can contain a surface comparable to that of a football pitch—not around the outside of the powder, but hidden along the walls of billions of microscopic pores.
MOFs are often described as molecular sponges, although the comparison is not quite accurate. A kitchen sponge absorbs water into its bulk. MOFs usually adsorb molecules: the molecules cling to their internal surfaces through physical or chemical interactions.
That difference is crucial. MOFs are not merely porous. Their internal surfaces can be designed to favour particular molecular guests.
Why did MOFs win the Nobel Prize in Chemistry?
The foundations of the field were laid over several decades.
Richard Robson demonstrated that metal ions and organic molecules could be assembled into spacious, repeating networks. Susumu Kitagawa showed that gases could enter and leave porous frameworks and that some structures could respond flexibly to their molecular guests. Omar Yaghi developed increasingly stable frameworks and a more systematic approach to constructing them, helping establish the field now known as reticular chemistry.
In 2025, the three scientists received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the development of metal-organic frameworks.
Their work changed how chemists approached materials design. Instead of discovering a substance and then investigating its properties, researchers could begin with a desired function and construct a framework around it.
Porous materials were not new. Zeolites, for example, have long been used in water treatment, detergents, oil refining and chemical separation. They are durable, relatively inexpensive and industrially established.
MOFs offer greater design freedom. Chemists can combine a wide range of metal nodes and organic linkers, giving them unusually precise control over pore dimensions and chemical behaviour. The attraction is not simply porosity, but programmable porosity.
How could MOFs improve carbon capture?
Carbon capture has become the clearest test of whether this molecular precision has industrial value.
Conventional capture systems commonly use liquid solvents containing amines to bind carbon dioxide from power-station or industrial exhaust. The process works, but heating the solvent to release the captured CO₂ and regenerate the liquid consumes substantial energy.
A carefully designed MOF can preferentially adsorb carbon dioxide while allowing much of the nitrogen and other gases in an exhaust stream to pass. If the CO₂ can then be released using less energy, the overall capture process could become more efficient.
The laboratory performance is often impressive. Real exhaust is less cooperative.
Industrial gas streams contain water vapour and contaminants that can damage sensitive frameworks or compete with carbon dioxide for space inside their pores. The material must survive repeated adsorption and regeneration, maintain its performance over thousands of cycles and allow large volumes of gas to pass without creating excessive resistance.
It must also be affordable. Activated carbon, zeolites and amine solvents may offer less molecular precision, but they are familiar, widely available and already supported by mature supply chains.
A MOF does not need to set a record under perfect laboratory conditions. It needs to capture enough carbon, for long enough and at low enough cost, to justify replacing established technology.
Can MOFs harvest water from dry air?
Atmospheric water harvesting provides a more visually striking example of what programmable pores could achieve.
The atmosphere contains water vapour even in arid regions. Conventional condensation-based water generators can collect it, but cooling large volumes of air below the dew point becomes particularly energy-intensive when humidity is low.
Certain MOFs adsorb water at low relative humidity and release it when warmed. In principle, sunlight or low-grade waste heat could drive the regeneration cycle, allowing a device to collect water without relying entirely on energy-intensive refrigeration.
Researchers have already demonstrated the principle in arid environments. Atoco, founded by Omar Yaghi, is developing materials and systems for atmospheric water harvesting as well as carbon capture.
The challenge is no longer simply showing that a MOF can collect water. A practical machine must move sufficient air through the material, condense the released vapour, produce meaningful quantities each day and survive dust, heat and repeated cycling. In locations where water is scarce, it must also compete with pipelines, tankers, desalination and other established solutions.
Hydrogen storage, wastewater treatment, drug delivery and chemical separation offer further possibilities. But carbon capture and water harvesting best illustrate both sides of the MOF story: exceptional molecular control paired with demanding system-level economics.
Why are MOFs difficult to commercialise?
A few milligrams of pristine MOF can perform beautifully in a laboratory. Industry needs consistent material that works in heat, humidity and dirty gas streams.
Some frameworks degrade in water. Others rely on expensive metals, organic linkers or solvents. A material that captures a large quantity of gas once may lose performance after repeated use.
The powder itself presents another problem. Loose particles cannot simply be poured into most industrial equipment. MOFs generally need to be formed into pellets, coatings, membranes or structured filters.
Compressing the material can close some of its pores. Adding a binder may improve mechanical strength while covering part of the internal surface. Poorly controlled particles can crumble, restrict gas flow or behave differently from one production batch to the next.
Commercialising metal-organic frameworks therefore requires more than scaling up a laboratory recipe. Manufacturers must preserve the microscopic structure while turning the powder into something an engineer can install, operate and replace.
Which companies are commercialising MOFs?
Different companies are addressing different parts of the transition from laboratory research to industrial production.
BASF has established capacity to produce MOFs at a scale of several hundred tonnes per year. One material is intended for structured filters developed by Canadian carbon-capture company Svante. Those filters must combine the MOF with controlled gas flow, heat management and mechanical durability.
Promethean Particles is tackling the manufacturing process itself. Its continuous-flow system replaces production in individual batches with a stream of raw materials passing through a reactor. The company says this improves consistency and offers potential production capacity of up to 1,000 tonnes per year. Its four-tonne delivery in 2025 was its largest order at the time.
Swiss company novoMOF works on selecting materials, stabilising recipes and moving production from laboratory quantities towards industrial scale.
US-based Numat shows that MOFs have already escaped the laboratory in specialised markets. Its ION-X system uses a MOF to store hazardous dopant gases such as arsine and phosphine below atmospheric pressure for semiconductor manufacturing.
So MOFs have found commercial roles in markets measured by precision, safety and value. The larger test is whether they can enter applications such as carbon capture, gas storage and water treatment, where materials may eventually be required in far greater quantities.
The future of metal-organic frameworks
MOFs are unlikely to become one universal substance that transforms every industry. The name describes an enormous family of materials, not a single product.
One framework may survive wet industrial exhaust. Another may collect water effectively in dry air. A third may separate molecules that conventional filters struggle to distinguish.
Many will never leave the laboratory. Some will prove too fragile, expensive or difficult to manufacture. Others will address problems already handled adequately by cheaper materials.
But metal-organic frameworks do not need to fulfil every prediction made for them. Capturing carbon with less energy, producing water in dry regions or improving one difficult industrial separation would be enough to establish an important new class of materials.
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