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.
Authors
- Hangfeng Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3928-8772)
- Young‐Ok Cha (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8788-3146)
- Yang Hao (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9949-7226)
- Ishan Fernando
- William Mena
Institutions
- Queen Mary University of London (GB)
- University of Cambridge (GB)
- Bridge University (SS)
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