Graph-FINDER: multimodal AI for extracting materials data from scientific figures at scale

Abstract A major bottleneck in materials informatics is that quantitative experimental data remain embedded in figures and are inaccessible to machine-readable databases. Here we introduce Graph-FINDER, a multimodal artificial intelligence framework integrating computer vision, natural language processing, and large language models to automatically extract structured numerical data from scientific text and plots. Graph-FINDER digitizes complex multi-line graphs without manual calibration, achieving high shape agreement with curated ground truth (mean Spearman’s ρ > 0.92) and low normalized point-wise error (mean nRMSE = 0.018). Applied to 874 VO 2 studies, it reconstructs over 800 resistance–temperature curves, yielding >40,000 datapoints describing transition temperatures, hysteresis widths, and resistance ratios. These data enable application-aware dopant mapping and predictive screening of optimal compositions, with density functional theory supporting AI-identified candidates. Extension to 350 Ge–Sb–Te studies demonstrates cross-material scalability. Graph-FINDER converts fragmented literature into structured datasets, accelerating data-driven materials discovery.

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Publication Details

Journal
npj Computational Materials
Published
2026-07-28
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41524-026-02247-y
Primary Topic
Machine Learning in Materials Science
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00
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article

Graph-FINDER: multimodal AI for extracting materials data from scientific figures at scale

Hangfeng Zhang, Young‐Ok Cha, Yang Hao, Ishan Fernando et al.
npj Computational Materials
Machine Learning in Materials Science
article

Graph-FINDER: multimodal AI for extracting materials data from scientific figures at scale

Hangfeng Zhang, Young‐Ok Cha, Yang Hao, Ishan Fernando, William Mena
article en

Abstract

Abstract A major bottleneck in materials informatics is that quantitative experimental data remain embedded in figures and are inaccessible to machine-readable databases. Here we introduce Graph-FINDER, a multimodal artificial intelligence framework integrating computer vision, natural language processing, and large language models to automatically extract structured numerical data from scientific text and plots. Graph-FINDER digitizes complex multi-line graphs without manual calibration, achieving high shape agreement with curated ground truth (mean Spearman’s ρ > 0.92) and low normalized point-wise error (mean nRMSE = 0.018). Applied to 874 VO 2 studies, it reconstructs over 800 resistance–temperature curves, yielding >40,000 datapoints describing transition temperatures, hysteresis widths, and resistance ratios. These data enable application-aware dopant mapping and predictive screening of optimal compositions, with density functional theory supporting AI-identified candidates. Extension to 350 Ge–Sb–Te studies demonstrates cross-material scalability. Graph-FINDER converts fragmented literature into structured datasets, accelerating data-driven materials discovery.

npj Computational Materials
Queen Mary University of London (GB), University of Cambridge (GB), Bridge University (SS)
Quality Education
Openalex Percentile: Top 19%
Machine Learning in Materials Science
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