Imagine a construction site where the bricks are individual molecules and the "cranes" are microscopic needles so sharp they can feel a single atom. For decades, building at this scale was a laborious, time-consuming task where a single human error could damage the delicate tools.
Now, researchers at the Department of Energy's (DOE) Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) have handed the controls to an artificial intelligence that can "learn" how to build these materials autonomously, working for more than 25 hours straight without a human operator.
In a study published in ACS Nano, ORNL researchers from the Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences (CNMS) describe the creation of a fully automated system capable of building functional materials atom-by-atom.
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