Nobel Prize in Chemistry to a Japanese Scientist

The Royal Swedish Academy announced that the Nobel Prize in Chemistry would go to three scientists, including a Japanese who is a Professor of Kyoto University, Susumu Kitagawa. They developed molecular constructions which “can be used harvest water from desert air, capture carbon dioxide, store toxic gases or catalyze chemical reactions. Kitagawa became the second Japanese who was awarded Nobel Prize this year, following Shimon Sakaguchi in Physiology and Medicine. 

Multiple Nobel Prize laureates in the same year makes great news for Japanese media. Newspapers reported the decision of Nobel Committee to award Kitagawa with huge headline on October 9th. They emphasized that Kitagawa is the thirtieth person of Nobel Prize laureate, since Hideki Yukawa received one in physics in 1949 and the ninth in Chemistry.

 

According to the Nobel Committee, Kitagawa, Richard Robson with University of Melbourne, Australia, and Omar M. Yaghi with University of California, Berkley in the United State of America, created new rooms for chemistry. The rooms were created in porous molecular structures, called metal-organic frameworks (MOF), which have large spaces through which gases and other chemicals can flow.

 

In 1989, Robson combined a sort of copper ions with a four-armed molecule which attracted a chemical group at the end of each arm, forming a spacious crystal. While the crystal was unstable, Kitagawa and Yaghi provided with a firm foundation. Kitagawa showed the gas can flow in and out of the constructions and predicted that MOFs could be made flexible. Yaghi created a very stable MOF.

 

“Metal–organic frameworks have enormous potential, bringing previously unforeseen opportunities for custom-made materials with new functions,” said Heiner Linke, chair of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry. The MOF is supposed to utilize for creating fresh water by storing steam from desert air in the night and emit water in the morning in a higher air temperature.

 

Meanwhile, the MOF is expected to remove perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) from water, collect elements of rare earths from contaminated water, and able to collect carbon dioxide, which causes global warming, in factories and power plants. It is possible for a car to improve engine with high power and low fuel efficiency, if the MOF can enable car engine to inhale concentrated oxygen.

 

It was reported that Kitagawa’s discovery had not received international approval by scientists. With his firm belief of “the usefulness of the useless” kept him involved in his study of MOF. The episode indicates an importance of basic study in science. Nobel Prize on him may cause revaluation of basic study in Japan, which government puts pressure on academic community to serve for benefit of national policies.

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