Ceramics & Inorganic Materials

It predicts material properties from chemical composition, so powder formulations, sintering windows and functional ceramic compositions can be ranked before a firing campaign is scheduled.

Final density, phase assemblage and grain structure depend on the interaction of powder characteristics, additive chemistry and the thermal profile — and the relationship is only revealed after firing. Because each sinter cycle consumes furnace time and yields a limited data point, most programmes explore a narrow band around known compositions.

You define the base composition set and the property window you need, and MatterSeek returns ranked candidates with predicted properties and uncertainty. Composition handling supports one to four base elements with doping-level precision of 0.02 — the granularity at which sintering-aid and dopant studies are specified. Prediction completes in about one minute for two base elements, two minutes for three, and seven minutes for four. Results are returned as multi-property radar charts, 2D and 3D heat maps that expose how properties shift across a composition range, and exportable data tables.

The prediction engine spans thermodynamic, thermal, mechanical, electrochemical, dielectric and electronic property families, including melting point, dielectric constant and superconducting critical temperature — parameters that govern sintering temperature selection, dielectric ceramics and functional oxide behaviour.

Predicted compositions enter MatterSeek's 1,200 m² autonomous laboratory, whose six process clusters were designed around inorganic non-metallic materials. The solid-state cluster covers powder batching, ball milling, spray drying, dry pressing with cold isostatic pressing, sintering under air, vacuum or controlled atmosphere, annealing and dicing. The wet-chemistry cluster covers precursor preparation, hydrothermal synthesis, calcination and classification. The sol–gel cluster runs through hydrolysis, gel ageing, solvent exchange and supercritical CO₂ drying — the route to aerogel thermal-insulation materials and high-surface-area carriers. Automated characterization includes XRD, XRF, BET surface area, Raman and simultaneous thermal analysis, with a stated target of 300 to 500 samples per day depending on the route. Prediction accuracy is 95.7% against physical measurement.

advanced structural and functional ceramics, piezoelectric ceramics, thermal-barrier coatings, aerogel insulation, solid-oxide fuel-cell materials, glass and glass-ceramics, and refractory compositions.