Data-mined similarity function between material compositions

Abstract

A new method for assessing the similarity of material compositions is described. A similarity measure is important for the classification and clustering of compositions. The similarity of the material compositions is calculated utilizing a data-mined ionic substitutional similarity based upon the probability with which two ions will substitute for each other within the same structure prototype. The method is validated via the prediction of crystal structure prototypes for oxides from the Inorganic Crystal Structure Database, selecting the correct prototype from a list of known prototypes within five guesses 75% of the time. It performs particularly well on the quaternary oxides, selecting the correct prototype from a list of known prototypes on the first guess 65% of the time.