 Screenshot of the database entry for mp-1071163, a polymorph oftitanium(II) oxide | |
Type of site | Scientific database |
|---|---|
| Founder | Kristin Persson |
| URL | materialsproject |
| Commercial | No |
| Registration | Optional |
| Users | 600,000 (2025)[1] |
| Launched | 2011 |
TheMaterials Project is an open-access database offering material properties[2] to accelerate the development of technology by predicting how new materials–both real and hypothetical–can be used.[3] The project was established in 2011 with an emphasis on battery research,[4] but includes property calculations for many areas of clean energy systems such asphotovoltaics,thermoelectric materials, andcatalysts.[5] Most of the known 35,000 molecules and over 130,000inorganic compounds are included in the database.[6][7]
Dr.Kristin Persson ofLawrence Berkeley National Laboratory founded and leads the initiative, which uses supercomputers at Berkeley, among other institutions, to run calculations usingDensity Functional Theory (DFT). Commonly computed values include enthalpy of formation, crystal structure, and band gap. The assembled databases of computed structures and properties is freely available to anyone under aCC 4.0 license and was developed with ease of use in mind. The data have been used to predict new materials that should be synthesizable,[8] and screen existing materials for useful properties.[9]
The project can be traced back to Persson'spostdoc research atMIT in 2004, during which she was given access to asupercomputer to do DFT calculations.[10] After joining Berkeley Lab in 2008, Persson received the necessary funding to make the data from her research freely available.[10]
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