Accelerating Catalyst Discovery via Ab Initio Machine Learning

Abstract

In recent decades, machine learning techniques have received an explosion of interest in the domain of high-throughput materials discovery, which is largely attributed to the fastgrowing development of quantum-chemical methods and learning algorithms. Nevertheless, machine learning for catalysis is still at its initial stage due to our insufficient knowledge of the structure-property relationships. In this regard, we demonstrate a holistic machine-learning framework as surrogate models for the expensive density functional theory to facilitate the discovery of high-performance catalysts. The framework, which integrates the descriptor-based kinetic analysis, material fingerprinting and machine learning algorithms, can rapidly explore a broad range of materials space with enormous compositional and configurational degrees of freedom prior to the expensive quantum-chemical calculations and/or experimental testing. Importantly, advanced machine learning approaches (e.g., global sensitivity analysis, principal component analysis, and exploratory analysis) can be utilized to shed light on the underlying physical factors governing the catalytic activity on a diverse type of catalytic materials with different applications. Chapter 1 introduces some basic concepts and knowledge relating to the computational catalyst design. Chapter 2 and Chapter 3 demonstrate the methodology to construct the machine-learning models for bimetallic catalysts. In Chapter 4, the multi-functionality of the machine-learning models is illustrated to understand the metalloporphyrin's underlying structure-property relationships. In Chapter 5, an uncertainty-guided machine learning strategy is introduced to tackle the challenge of data deficiency for perovskite electrode materials design in the electrochemical water splitting cell.