Hazard Evaluation of Metal-Organic Framework Synthesis and Scale-up: A Laboratory Safety Perspective

The undeniable rise of metal-organic framework (MOF) technology has opened the possibilities of these compounds for research and potential commercialization as alternative materials with a versatile number of applications that range from catalysis to greenhouse gases capture. However, there are several factors that constrain the direct scale-up of MOF from the laboratory to industrial plant scale given the insufficient knowledge about the overall safety in the synthesis process of more than 6000 existing MOF structures. This article discusses the findings of an overall hazard identification and analysis on the mainstream MOF synthesis process at the laboratory scale. One of the main motivations is to provide an insightful source of the safety practices and standards well-known in the chemical and petrochemical industries applied to the case study of the MOF synthesis process, as well as to prevent tragic incidents as the one reported in a research institute in March 2021. The intention is to encourage present and future MOF researchers to apply the techniques described in this article, or similar techniques, to their own laboratory practices therefore improving the overall practice of MOF synthesis. This work contributes to the overall advancement of MOF technology and the efforts for its commercial use at an industrial scale.