Life Cycle Assessment of Silver, Copper, and Zinc-Based Metal−Organic Framework Products for Industry-Scale Production and Future Horizons

Metal−organic frameworks (MOFs) are an increasingly versatile nanomaterial platform, whose functional properties make them highly attractive for diverse industrial applications. In this work, we perform a dosage-normalized cradle-to-gate life cycle assessment of three benchmark MOFs (silver-, copper-, and zinc-based) against the commercial antibiotic levofloxacin under both lab-scale and projected industrial-scale scenarios. We find that, while silver-MOF achieves the lowest functional mass per application, its environmental footprint is dominated by the precursor synthesis, whereas copper- and zinc-MOFs deliver more balanced impact profiles when normalized to performance. Process-grouping analysis pinpoints metal precursor production and solvent use as critical hotspots, informing targeted strategies—such as closed-loop metal recovery, green solvent substitution, and continuous-flow intensification—for sustainable scale-up. By embedding experimentally determined minimum bactericidal concentrations (MBCs) into TRACI 2.1 metrics, our study establishes a transferable, performance-based framework for benchmarking emerging nanomaterials against traditional antimicrobial agents and highlights clear levers to accelerate the sustainable industrial deployment of MOF technologies.