Department of Chemistry Seminar - Richard Brutchey

The Department of Chemistry Seminar Series presents: Richard Brutchey

University of Southern California

Host: Simon Humphrey

Title: Harnessing the Full Power of “Small” Data to Guide Materials Synthesis

Refreshments served at 3:15pm

Location: WEL 2.122

The urgent need for new materials in next-generation technologies demands faster development and deployment. Traditionally, decades separate discovery from commercialization. However, the Materials Genome Initiative, through platforms like the Materials Project, has accelerated materials discovery by computationally predicting properties before physical production. Despite this progress, a major bottleneck remains in the synthesis science due to limited mechanistic understanding, making prediction and control difficult. Conventional trial-and-error methods are slow and inefficient.

Data-driven approaches, such as design of experiments (DoE) and machine learning, offer more efficient ways to predict and control materials synthesis. This talk will present recent advances in using these techniques to guide inorganic materials synthesis. Notably, even with limited data from novel, low-throughput chemistries, these methods yield promising results. Case studies from my lab will illustrate how these approaches optimize synthesis, navigate complex phase diagrams, and enhance CO₂ reduction catalyst performance.