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LBNL Researchers Support Commercialization of 2025 Nobel Winner’s MOF Technology

November 17, 2025

Credit: Brittany Hosea-Small, UC Berkeley

Omar Yaghi, the James and Neeltje Tretter Chair in UC Berkeley’s College of Chemistry and former director of the Molecular Foundry at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), shared the 2025 Nobel Prize for Chemistry for his pioneering work in reticular chemistry, including the invention of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) and covalent organic frameworks (COFs).

Currently an affiliate at the Lab, Yaghi cofounded Waha, Inc in 2018, with an initial focus to apply his groundbreaking MOF technology in atmospheric water harvesting applications. Waha is now working in partnership with researchers from LBNL’s Energy Technologies Area (ETA) to translate his groundbreaking invention into other real-world uses, including building technologies and industrial applications.

“We are thrilled to see Omar Yaghi receive this recognition for his pioneering work,” said Nihar Shah, Presidential Director of the Global Cooling Program at LBNL. “His foundational research on MOFs was key to game-changing applications, like the technologies we are exploring in partnership with WaHa, and we at LBNL are honored to continue to support their successful commercialization.”

The U.S. Department of Energy’s Building Technologies Office (BTO) provided funding to ETA to help commercialize WaHa’s technology. ETA’s expertise in tech-to-market programs aims to help the company develop technologies that are aligned with promising business models with the widest possible impact at scale.

While WaHa’s initial focus was on water-harvesting applications for populations in hot, arid, and water-scarce regions, ETA is helping WaHa explore uses in buildings (space cooling and dehumidification), refrigeration (pharmaceutical/food storage), and industrial settings (battery manufacturing and dry rooms). The BTO-funded work includes experiments at FLEXLAB®, an integrated building and grid technologies testbed.

Read more about Yaghi’s work and ongoing MOF research efforts at Berkeley Lab.