MOF Advanced Materials Patents: Leaders, Trends & White Space 2026
- Filing activity peaked in 2020 at 24 records and has since flattened toward the low single digits, so recent years understate real activity given the ~18-month publication lag.
- Catalysis and separation dominate the claim space with B01J appearing in 165 of 196 families — more than double the next closest subclass, C07F at 62.
- Ownership is fragmented, not consolidated the strongest co-assignee pair appears only 9 times, and several of the most active-looking names filed nothing in the latest year.
What this landscape covers
This dataset tracks 196 patent families filed against a search built around metal-organic framework (MOF), porous coordination polymer and MOF-composite terminology, restricted to catalysis, adsorption and organo-metallic IPC codes (B01J20/22, C01B39, C07F). It captures the applied end of MOF research — composites, defect-engineered variants and functionalized derivatives — rather than the underlying framework chemistry itself.
Filings are spread across United States, China, WIPO/PCT, European, Indian and South Korean receiving offices, indicating the technology is being protected as a global commercial material rather than filed defensively in a single jurisdiction. The most-cited records in the corpus date back to 2009–2016, which is typical: citation counts accumulate over time and favour older foundational patents over newer, narrower ones.
Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 196 families: how filing volume has moved year over year, and which technical subclasses carry the claim density.
Filings rose to a 2020 peak, then declined
Annual filings climbed from 12 in 2017 to a peak of 24 in 2020, sat at 12 by the 2022 midpoint, and have trended down since. Because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, the 2025–2026 figures are undercounts rather than a confirmed slowdown, but the shape of the curve through 2022–2024 already points to a maturing rather than accelerating field.
Catalysis and separation carry the claim density
B01J (chemical/physical processes and catalysis) appears in 165 of 196 families — the dominant single subclass by a wide margin. C07F (organo-metallic compounds, 62), B01D (separation processes, 50) and C02F (water treatment, 43) form a second tier, while C07D (heterocyclic compounds, 9) is the thinnest-claimed code in the set, a candidate for less-crowded filing.
Shares are the percentage of the 196 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Metal-Organic Framework Advanced Materials with Eureka
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Try EurekaMost-cited prior art in the corpus
Silica hollow sphere with a MOF composite layer and method for preparing the same
A silica hollow-sphere core is covalently grafted with an amino-silane layer, on which a ZIF-8 crystal layer is grown in situ using the amino groups as nucleation sites, with thiol groups distributed on the outer surface of the MOF crystals.Filed by Guangdong Longzee Interconnection Technology Co., Ltd., published 2026-05-05 — illustrates the current pattern of layering a specific MOF species (ZIF-8) onto an engineered core rather than claiming MOF chemistry broadly.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20200197901A1 | Metal organic framework (MOF) composite materials, methods, and uses thereof | 88 |
| 2 | CN104096542A | 一种新型磁性Fe/CMOF复合材料吸附剂及其制备方法 | 63 |
| 3 | US9474997B1 | Metal-organic framework sorbents having hierarchical pore structure and method of making the same | 59 |
| 4 | WO2009133366A2 | Metal organic framework compounds | 56 |
| 5 | CN105498695A | 一种海藻酸钠-金属有机框架复合小球及其制备方法和应用 | 53 |
| 6 | US20130157837A1 | Confinement of nanosized metal organic framework in NANO carbon morphologies | 51 |
| 7 | US20200179916A1 | Composite Metal Organic Framework Materials, Processes for Their Manufacture and Uses Thereof | 49 |
| 8 | WO2018197715A1 | Composite metal organic framework materials, processes for their manufacture and uses thereof | 48 |
| 9 | US20200291045A1 | Conductivity enhancement of mofs via development of mofpolymer composite material | 47 |
| 10 | US20170361300A1 | System and process for continuous and controlled production of metal-organic frameworks and metal-organic fra… | 42 |
Citation counts are cumulative and structurally favour older filings; treat this table as a map of influential prior art to search against, not a ranking of current importance.
Patent titles are shown in the language they were filed in, not translated, so that each record stays verifiable against the original filing — a translated title will not match in Eureka or in any national register. Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Read together, the trend and IPC data point to a field where the core catalysis and adsorption claims are heavily occupied but adjacent processing and application claims are comparatively open.
Growth has flattened, not accelerated
The 2020 peak of 24 annual filings has not been matched since; the 2022 midpoint of 12 and the declining tail through 2026 suggest the field is consolidating around established chemistries rather than expanding into new ones.
Catalysis and adsorption claims are crowded
B01J's presence in 84% of families means most new filings in catalytic or sorbent MOF composites will need to design around a dense prior-art base rather than stake fresh ground.
Influence is concentrated in a handful of foundational patents
The most-cited record sits far above the rest of the corpus, while co-assignee collaboration is thin — the strongest pairing recurs only 9 times — indicating most players build independently rather than through joint filing.
Protection is filed globally, led by the US and China
United States (59) and China (46) together account for over half of tracked filings, with WIPO, Europe, India and South Korea forming a meaningful secondary tier — consistent with a materials technology being commercialised across multiple manufacturing bases.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to metal-organic framework advanced materials, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who is filing, and where the activity has stalled
Assignee activity in this corpus is fragmented: no single organisation dominates, several previously visible names show zero filings in the latest tracked year, and joint filing between assignees is rare.
Even active-looking assignees have gone quiet recently
Names including Council of Scientific & Industrial Research, Bharat Petroleum, Cambridge Enterprise and Northwestern University show no filings in the most recent tracked year, one with a -100% year-on-year change — consistent with the broader post-2020 slowdown rather than any single firm's retreat.
Joint filing is the exception, not the norm
Only 10 co-assignee pairs appear across 196 families, and the strongest — Council of Scientific & Industrial Research with Bharat Petroleum — recurs just 9 times. Most organisations in this dataset are filing independently.
US and Chinese filings lead, with a long regional tail
Beyond the two leading offices, WIPO (26), Europe (22), India (16) and South Korea (10) each carry a meaningful share, pointing to applicants who see commercial value across several manufacturing regions rather than a single home market.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Cambridge Enterprise Limited | 0 | — |
| Council of Scientific & Industrial Research | 0 | — |
| Mosaic Materials, Inc. | 0 | -100% |
| Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited | 0 | — |
| Korea University Research and Business Foundation | 0 | — |
| Northwestern University | 0 | — |
| King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals | 0 | -100% |
| University of Oslo | 0 | — |
Turning this landscape into a filing decision
The trend and IPC data narrow down where to look; the next step is checking a specific claim against the crowded subclasses and the thin ones side by side.
Stress-test a claim against the B01J cluster
Before filing in catalytic or sorbent MOF composites, run the proposed claim against the 165 families touching B01J to see how much of the mechanism is already occupied.
Explore claim comparison in EurekaCheck the thinner subclasses for open claim space
C07D and C01B carry far fewer families than B01J or C07F — worth a closer look before assuming a heterocyclic-linker or inorganic-hybrid approach is already blocked.
Run a white-space search in EurekaTrack assignees that have gone quiet
Several organisations with prior activity show zero filings in the latest year; monitoring whether that reverses helps anticipate renewed competitive filing before it appears in public trend data.
Set up assignee monitoring in EurekaCommon questions about MOF materials patents
This landscape tracks 196 patent families filed between 2015 and mid-2026, built around metal-organic framework, MOF composite and porous coordination polymer terminology restricted to catalysis, adsorption and organo-metallic classification codes. This is a focused applied-materials slice, not a count of all MOF chemistry patents worldwide — broader framework-chemistry filings sit outside this specific search definition. Because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, the true 2025–2026 total is higher than currently visible.
No — filings peaked at 24 in 2020, sat at 12 by the 2022 midpoint, and have declined since, with several previously active assignees showing zero filings in the latest tracked year. Some of the recent-year drop is a publication-lag artefact rather than a genuine stop in activity. Taken together, the pattern reads as consolidation around established chemistries rather than continued expansion.
Catalysis and physical/chemical process claims (IPC class B01J) dominate, appearing in 165 of the 196 tracked families — well ahead of organo-metallic compounds (C07F, 62), separation processes (B01D, 50) and water treatment (C02F, 43). Heterocyclic compound applications (C07D) are the thinnest-claimed area in the dataset at 9 families. High density in B01J means occupied claim space, not necessarily a solved technical problem.
Ownership in this corpus is fragmented rather than concentrated: no single organisation dominates the ranking, co-assignee collaboration is rare (only 10 pairs across 196 families, the strongest recurring just 9 times), and several organisations with visible historical activity — including national research councils, universities and materials companies — show no filings in the most recent tracked year. This points to a competitive field with many independent entrants rather than a small set of dominant players.
The comparatively thin subclasses — C07D (heterocyclic compounds, 9 families) and C01B (non-metallic inorganic compounds, 18 families) — carry far less filing density than the dominant B01J catalysis cluster, suggesting more room for a novel claim there. Specific under-explored combinations include defect-engineered MOF layers grown on engineered inorganic cores and MOF-derived hybrids with condensation polymers. Any white-space read should be confirmed against a live claim search, since a thin IPC count can also mean a technically harder route rather than an open one.
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Disclaimer. This page is generated from Patsnap Eureka data drawn from a limited snapshot of global patent and scientific-literature records, and is provided for general information and reference only.
Patent data carries inherent limitations: recent filings (typically the most recent 18–24 months) are under-counted due to standard publication lag; counts may be reported at either a patent-family or a patent-record basis and are not always directly comparable; classification, applicant-name, and citation data may contain errors, duplicates, or omissions; and the underlying search query defines and constrains the scope shown. As a result, the analysis may be incomplete or inaccurate and may not reflect the full technology landscape.
Nothing on this page constitutes an exhaustive prior-art, novelty, freedom-to-operate, or validity search, nor does it constitute legal, financial, investment, or professional advice, and it should not be relied upon as such. Any patent, commercial, or strategic decision should be verified independently and reviewed with qualified patent, legal, and domain professionals. Patsnap makes no warranties, express or implied, as to the accuracy, completeness, or fitness for any particular purpose of the information presented.
Machine translation. Assignee and organisation names originally recorded in Chinese, Japanese or Korean have been rendered into English by an AI translation step so that the tables stay readable. These renderings are best-effort and may not match a company’s registered English name; the original name is what the underlying patent record carries, and it is what any Eureka query launched from this page uses.