Sintering of metal-organic frameworks

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are a class of functional materials that have shown tremendous promise in diverse applications, including molecular sieving, energy storage, ion separation, and biomedicine. They are frequently synthesized as separate powders, creating considerable technological gaps in device fabrication and application. Sintering happens both naturally in mineral deposits and anthropogenically in metal, ceramic, and plastic materials processing, allowing for the formation of coherent material masses. It is a classic materials-forming technique, yet MOF sintering is still in its infancy. This perspective provides a brief overview of emerging MOF-sintering research and presents tremendous, but mostly unexplored, opportunities for adapting advanced sintering techniques to the MOF area. We specifically recognized numerous key, yet unresolved, research topics in this sector, such as microstructure evolution during sintering, engineering defects, and computational simulation of the process, and provided perspectives on important applications for sintered products.