An online toolkit developed at MIT and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory has been designed to make it easier for researchers to find materials with specific properties. The Web site, the Materials Project , allows users to explore an ever-growing database of more than 18,000 chemical compounds. Its tools can quickly predict how two compounds will react with one another, what that composite’s molecular structure will be, and how stable it would be at different temperatures and pressures.
It used to require months of work — consulting tables of data, performing calculations, and carrying out precise lab tests — to create a single phase diagram showing when compounds incorporating several different elements would be solid, liquid, or gas. Now, such a diagram can be generated in a matter of minutes, says Gerbrand Ceder, professor of materials science and engineering at MIT, and initiator of the project.
The new tool could revolutionize product development in fields from energy to electronics to biochemistry, its developers say. It is more than a database of known information; it also computes many materials’ properties in real time, upon request, using the supercomputing capacity of the Lawrence Berkeley Lab. More than 500 researchers from universities, research labs, and companies have used the new system to seek new materials for lithium-ion batteries, photovoltaic cells, and new lightweight alloys for use in cars, trucks, and airplanes. It is available for us be by anyone, although users must register (free of charge) in order to spend more than a few minutes, or to use the most advanced features.
Also: Learn about materials innovations here.
