A trio of scientist have been given the 2025 Nobel Prize in chemistry for the development of “metal-organic frameworks,” a new form of molecular architecture likened to something from the Harry Potter novels.

Axar.az informs, citing CNN, Susumu Kitagawa, Richard Robson and Omar Yaghi will share the prize for providing chemists “with new opportunities for solving some of the challenges” the field faces, the Nobel Committee announced Wednesday at a ceremony in Stockholm, Sweden.

Announcing the prize, Heiner Linke, chair of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry, said the laureates had found ways to make completely new materials “with large cavities” inside that function “like rooms in a hotel, so that guest molecules can enter and exit again from the same material.”

He said the chemistry functions like Hermione Granger’s handbag in the Harry Potter books, which appears small on the outside but is large on the inside.

“It can store huge amounts of gas in a tiny volume,” Linke explained. “Metal-organic frameworks have enormous potential, bringing previously unforeseen opportunities for custom-made materials with new functions.”

The committee praised the laureates for creating molecular constructions with large spaces through which gases and other chemicals can flow.

“These constructions, metal-organic frameworks, can be used to harvest water from desert air, capture carbon dioxide, store toxic gases or catalyse chemical reactions,” it said.