4. Scaling techniques

The growing interest in MOFs in industry goes hand in hand with their production on an industrial scale. This requires a number of parameters to be taken into account, such as the cost of raw materials and the process, safety aspects, toxicity and environmental impact. Ultimately, MOF production must be economically viable, with the final cost having a major impact on the feasibility of industrialization.

On the laboratory scale (from milligrams to a few grams), the aim is first and foremost to obtain the purest product with the best possible crystallinity, in order to study the structure and its fundamental properties. At this stage, little effort is devoted to optimizing the synthesis and/or purification process, and hence to studying the energy impact and/or toxicity of the raw materials. Scaling up is usually the first step in evaluating MOF performance with...