Playing Lego with chemistry to build structures that could save the environment.

Omar Yaghi is a chemist with an extraordinary vision. The pioneer of MOFs (metal organic frameworks) - materials built from the molecular equivalent of LEGO bricks. He tells Tim and Syma about his humble beginnings in a cramped room in Amman, Jordan- where the conditions were limited, but his vision certainly wasn’t. 

A chance encounter with a chemical model building kit, set him on a pathway of discovery. 

Flying in the face of conventional chemical wisdom, he built large, well defined, ultra porous chemicals structures from individual building blocks. These structures are now being explored to salvage water from arid enviroments, to extract carbon dioxide from the environment and keep it locked away so it cannot amplify the ‘greenhouse effect’.  

His vision and the new chemistry it has produced has the potential to combat global warming, to provide clean drinking water and remove harmful plastics from the environment.

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