CAMBRIDGE, MA – MIT and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have developed an online, searchable database of more than 18,000 chemical compounds.

The project, a direct outgrowth of MIT’s Materials Genome Project, initiated in 2006 by Prof. Gerbrand Ceder, compiles data previously scattered in many different places, most of them not even searchable. The site’s tools can predict how two compounds react with one another, what that composite’s molecular structure is, and how stable it would be at different temperatures and pressures. It slashes the months of work it once took to consult tables of data, perform calculations and carry out precise lab tests to create a single phase diagram to a matter of minutes.

The tool could revolutionize product development in fields from energy to electronics to biochemistry, its developers say. The site computes many materials’ properties in real time, using the supercomputing capacity of the Lawrence Berkeley Lab.

More than 500 researchers from universities, research labs and companies have used the new system to seek new materials for lithium-ion batteries, photovoltaic cells and new lightweight alloys for use in cars, trucks and airplanes. Access is free, but requires registration.