The project provides open web-based access to computed information on known and predicted materials to inspire and design novel materials.
L’idée du Material Project est de créer une base de données “virtuelle” de tous les matériaux possibles (et de leurs propriétés) afin de permettre aux chimistes de mettre au point rapidement ces derniers (source : Remi Sussan, internetactu.net).
Computational materials science is now powerful enough that it can predict many properties of materials before those materials are ever synthesized in the lab. By scaling materials computations over supercomputing clusters, we have predicted several new battery materials which were made and tested in the lab. Recently, we have also identified new transparent conducting oxides and thermoelectric materials using this approach.
La promesse derrière ce projet est d'aider à "cultiver" les matériaux, et donc de proposer de nouvelles voies aux recyclages de métaux rares, couteux et difficile.