Materials Project

{{Infobox website

| screenshot = File:Materials_Project.png

| screenshot_size = 250px

| caption = Screenshot of the database entry for mp-1071163, a polymorph of titanium(II) oxide

| name = Materials Project

| type = Scientific database

| founder = Kristin Persson

| url = {{url|https://materialsproject.org/}}

| commercial = No

| registration = Optional

| users = 120,000 (2020)

| launch_date = 2011

}}

The Materials Project is an open-access database offering material properties{{Cite web|last=Chao|first=Julie|date=2013-06-24|title=Development of New Advanced Materials to Get Boost|url=https://newscenter.lbl.gov/2013/06/24/development-of-new-advanced-materials-to-get-boost/|access-date=2021-03-19|website=News Center|language=en-US}} to accelerate the development of technology by predicting how new materials–both real and hypothetical–can be used.{{Cite journal|last1=Jain|first1=Anubhav|last2=Ong|first2=Shyue Ping|last3=Hautier|first3=Geoffroy|last4=Chen|first4=Wei|last5=Richards|first5=William Davidson|last6=Dacek|first6=Stephen|last7=Cholia|first7=Shreyas|last8=Gunter|first8=Dan|last9=Skinner|first9=David|last10=Ceder|first10=Gerbrand|last11=Persson|first11=Kristin A.|date=2013-07-01|title=Commentary: The Materials Project: A materials genome approach to accelerating materials innovation|journal=APL Materials|volume=1|issue=1|pages=011002|doi=10.1063/1.4812323|bibcode=2013APLM....1a1002J|doi-access=free}} The project was established in 2011 with an emphasis on battery research,{{Cite news|date=2013-02-02|title=Batteries included?|newspaper=The Economist|url=https://www.economist.com/science-and-technology/2013/02/02/batteries-included|access-date=2021-01-25|issn=0013-0613}} but includes property calculations for many areas of clean energy systems such as photovoltaics, thermoelectric materials, and catalysts.{{Cite web|last=Duque|first=Theresa|date=2020-05-08|title=Q&A With Materials Project Director Kristin Persson|url=https://newscenter.lbl.gov/2020/05/08/materials-project-qa-persson/|access-date=2021-01-25|website=News Center|language=en-US}} Most of the known 35,000 molecules and over 130,000 inorganic compounds are included in the database.{{Cite web|title=Materials database proves its mettle with new discoveries|url=https://news.mit.edu/2014/materials-database-proves-its-mettle-with-new-discoveries-0204|access-date=2021-03-19|website=MIT News {{!}} Massachusetts Institute of Technology|date=4 February 2014 |language=en}}{{Cite web|title=Materials Project :: About|url=https://materialsproject.org/about|access-date=2021-03-19|website=materialsproject.org}}

Dr. Kristin Persson of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory founded and leads the initiative, which uses supercomputers at Berkeley, among other institutions, to run calculations using Density 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 a CC 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,{{Cite journal|last1=Sun|first1=Wenhao|last2=Bartel|first2=Christopher J.|last3=Arca|first3=Elisabetta|last4=Bauers|first4=Sage R.|last5=Matthews|first5=Bethany|last6=Orvañanos|first6=Bernardo|last7=Chen|first7=Bor-Rong|last8=Toney|first8=Michael F.|last9=Schelhas|first9=Laura T.|last10=Tumas|first10=William|last11=Tate|first11=Janet|author11-link= Janet Tate |date=2019-06-17|title=A map of the inorganic ternary metal nitrides|url=https://www.nature.com/articles/s41563-019-0396-2|journal=Nature Materials|language=en|volume=18|issue=7|pages=732–739|doi=10.1038/s41563-019-0396-2|pmid=31209391|issn=1476-4660|via=|arxiv=1809.09202|bibcode=2019NatMa..18..732S|s2cid=119461695}} and screen existing materials for useful properties.{{Cite journal|last1=Woods-Robinson|first1=Rachel|last2=Broberg|first2=Danny|last3=Faghaninia|first3=Alireza|last4=Jain|first4=Anubhav|last5=Dwaraknath|first5=Shyam S.|last6=Persson|first6=Kristin A.|date=2018-10-30|title=Assessing High-Throughput Descriptors for Prediction of Transparent Conductors|url=https://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/acs.chemmater.8b03529|journal=Chemistry of Materials|volume=30|issue=22|pages=8375–8389|doi=10.1021/acs.chemmater.8b03529|osti=1571125|s2cid=54078179 |issn=0897-4756}}

The project can be traced back to Persson's postdoc research at MIT in 2004, during which she was given access to a supercomputer to do DFT calculations.{{Cite web|last=Duque|first=Theresa|date=2020-05-08|title=Q&A With Materials Project Director Kristin Persson|url=https://newscenter.lbl.gov/2020/05/08/materials-project-qa-persson/|access-date=2021-03-19|website=News Center|language=en-US}} After joining Berkeley Lab in 2008, Persson received the necessary funding to make the data from her research freely available.