Sustainable Preparation of Zeolitic Imidazolate Framework‐8 in Water: From Early‐Stage Life Cycle Assessment to the Industrial Scale

The solvothermal method is the most investigated for the preparation of zeolitic imidazolate framework-8 (ZIF-8), among the most investigated metal–organic frameworks, and many solvents have been tested for this purpose. The main aim of this work is to define an effective, practical, and sustainable synthesis of these materials, focusing our attention on water, the greenest solvent overall. We focus our analysis on a comparative life cycle assessment based on the ZIF-8 synthesis in water and dimethylformamide (DMF), the organic solvent of choice for ZIF-8 preparation, in order to discuss the preparation of an advanced material in terms of environmental sustainability. The current work aims to emphasize the water-based synthesis of ZIF-8 through the critical discussion of the current state-of-the-art that demonstrates its excellent performance. A comparative life cycle assessment between the traditional DMF-based synthesis and the water-based route is also proposed, whose results highlight the advantages of using water as a solvent in this reaction. This work highlights the future needs for a sustainable industrial scale-up of ZIF-8 preparation in water by discussing crucial aspects that should be taken into account by both academic researchers and industry.