Nobel prize in chemistry awarded to scientists for work on ‘Hermione’s handbag’

UK-born Richard Robson, one of the Nobel prize winners, with a model of a metal-organic framework Photograph: University of Melbourne/AFP/Getty Images

The Nobel prize in chemistry has been awarded to three scientists who created revolutionary porous materials that can harvest water from desert air, capture carbon dioxide from industrial facilities and remove toxins from water.

Susumu Kitagawa, of Kyoto University, Richard Robson, of the University of Melbourne, and Omar Yaghi, of the University of California, Berkeley, shared the 11m Swedish kronor (about £871,400) prize awarded by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm.