Like a sponge that "grabs water" from the air, Nobel Prize winner Yaji Tai talks about new materials to combat drought and reduce carbon emissions

In the face of climate change, drought and water shortage, can we "take water" from the air? Omar M. Yaghi, winner of the 2025 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, gave a speech at National Taiwan University yesterday, introducing a new material with many tiny pores inside that can absorb moisture in the air and then release the moisture through heating for subsequent collection, providing a new direction for drought relief. Scientists can also design materials that absorb carbon dioxide and explore new ways to reduce carbon dioxide and mitigate climate change.

Yaqi was invited to participate in National Taiwan University's "Kyong-Yuan Song Top Research Lecture Nobel Prize Winner Lecture Series" to share how new materials and artificial intelligence can help mankind face problems such as water shortage and climate change. He also cited TSMC as an example, affirming Taiwan's semiconductor industry's emphasis on precision and quality, and believed that this way of thinking is worthy of reference in other fields.

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AI can help explore more material combinations. Yaqi said that with the advancement of AI, computer computing and automated experiments, scientists have more and more options for research, but humans still have to judge which issues are important and which directions are worth investing in. He calls this research thinking of asking questions, comparing possibilities and making choices "choice science" and encourages students to make good use of AI and collaborate across fields.

What's so special about these new materials? You can think of them as "sponges" with pores inside, but the pores are as small as the molecular scale. Scientists can change the structure and chemical properties of the pores to make different materials suitable for adsorbing molecules such as water vapor and carbon dioxide.

The materials introduced by Subunit include metal organic frameworks (MOFs) and covalent organic frameworks (COFs). The research focuses on designing materials with required functions starting from the arrangement of atoms and molecules, which can be used to store gases, capture carbon dioxide or collect water.

Taking water collection as an example, MOFs first absorb water vapor in the air, and then use heat to release the water for subsequent collection, providing new research directions for drought and water shortage areas.

In terms of carbon reduction, porous materials are expected to be used to capture carbon dioxide emitted by industries or directly remove carbon dioxide from the air. However, to be able to successfully adsorb in the laboratory, it is necessary to further confirm whether the material is durable, whether it can be used repeatedly, how much energy it consumes, and whether it can be mass-produced before it can be put into practical application.