New design process accelerates the discovery of advanced materials
Flexible materials that combine mechanical flexibility with high thermal or electrical conductivity are essential for wearables, stretchable electronics and soft robotic systems. To identify new composite materials with those properties, researchers typically create and test many different material formulations, a process that can be time-consuming, expensive and lead to waste. In a new study published recently in Advanced Functional Materials, UW researchers developed a new “inverse design framework” that reverses the standard design process to speed up the discovery of multifunctional materials. The framework starts with the desired material properties for a specific application – such as wearable electronics – and works backward to determine the optimal material composition using physics-based modeling and machine learning. Experiments showed that a material identified by the framework achieved about 60% higher thermal conductivity while reducing material cost by about 10%, compared to materials that were previously used.
