Scalable and Sustainable Synthesis of Advanced Porous Materials

Advanced porous materials (APMs) constructed from structure-encoded building blocks present an unprecedented degree for molecular design, and have demonstrated class-leading performance in numerous applications. However, the development of economically viable and sustainable synthetic means of production is a critical prerequisite to translate APMs to real-world applications. In this Perspective, we first consider the diverse synthetic routes to APMs—metal/covalent organic frameworks (MOFs/COFs), porous organic polymers (POPs) and porous molecular solids—and highlight the challenges for scalable and sustainable synthesis. Subsequently, we illustrate concepts to guide the sustainable synthesis of APMs with recent examples in the literature. Lastly, we present our outlook for the translation of molecular design to scalable APM production.