While bestowing the 2025 Nobel Prize in Chemistry last week, the winners were praised for their innovation, which one Nobel committee member compared to Hermione’s handbag from the Harry Potter novels.

The honored scientists developed materials that are full of microscopic holes that can trap and store chemicals.

The surface area properties are “unheard of”, according a Reuters report about the award presentation in Stockholm on Wednesday: “a porous material roughly the size of a sugar cube could contain as much surface area as a football pitch”.

“A small amount of such material can be almost like Hermione’s handbag in Harry Potter,” said Heiner Linke, the Chair of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry at the announcement. “It can store huge amounts of gas in a tiny volume.”

It all started in 1989, when Richard Robson began testing the properties of atoms in a new way.

The international trio of Robson, Omar Yaghi, and Susumu Kitagawa eventually developed metal organic frameworks (MOFs)—crystal‑like structures made from metal ions and carbon‑based molecules.

“When combined, they bonded to form a well-ordered, spacious crystal,” the committee wrote. “It was like a diamond filled with innumerable cavities.”

The frameworks of tiny cavities can be designed for different purposes, from collecting clean water in dry desert air to locking away CO2 and toxic gases.

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“This type of material can be created with almost unlimited variations, creating unending possibilities for the greatest benefit of humankind.”

For instance, they could filter harmful PFAS chemicals from drinking water or be used in next‑generation batteries.

The comparison to Hermione’s handbag was used because her enchanted bag could hold far more inside than its small size suggested, without getting heavier or losing shape.

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The three scientists from Kyoto University in Japan, Oxford in England, and the University of Melbourne, Australia will share prize money of 11 million Swedish kronor equally between them.

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