Evidence map›Paper›PMID 42328199›Full record

ArticlePatterns (New York, N.Y.)2026

Are diffusion models ready for materials discovery in unexplored chemical space?

Sanghyun Kim, Gihyeon Jeon, Seungwoo Hwang, Jiho Lee, Jisu Jung, Seungwu Han, Sungwoo Kang

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Patterns (New York, N.Y.), 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
1citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

1 citing paper in PubMed.

  1. Diffusion-Model-Driven Discovery of Ferroelectrics for Photocurrent Applications.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2026
    Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

7 authors.

Sanghyun KimComputational Science Research Center, Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST), Seoul 02792, Republic of Korea.
Gihyeon JeonComputational Science Research Center, Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST), Seoul 02792, Republic of Korea.
Seungwoo HwangDepartment of Materials Science and Engineering, Seoul National University, Seoul 08826, Republic of Korea.
Jiho LeeDepartment of Materials Science and Engineering, Seoul National University, Seoul 08826, Republic of Korea.
Jisu JungClimate&Energy R&D Group, Korea Institute of Ceramic Engineering and Technology (KICET), Jinju 52851, Republic of Korea.
Seungwu HanDepartment of Materials Science and Engineering, Seoul National University, Seoul 08826, Republic of Korea.
Sungwoo KangComputational Science Research Center, Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST), Seoul 02792, Republic of Korea.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

While diffusion models are attracting increasing attention for materials discovery, their ability to generate low-energy structures in unexplored chemical spaces has not been systematically assessed. Here, we evaluate the performance of the diffusion models MatterGen and DiffCSP against three databases: a ternary oxide set (constructed by a genetic algorithm), a ternary nitride set (constructed by template informatics), and the GNoME database (constructed by a combination of both). We find that diffusion models generally perform stably in well-sampled chemical spaces (oxides and nitrides) but are less effective in uncommon ones (GNoME), which contains many compositions involving rare-earth elements and unconventional stoichiometry. Finally, we assess their size-extrapolation capability and observe a significant drop in performance when the number of atoms exceeds the trained range. This is attributed to the limitations imposed by periodic boundary conditions, which we refer to as the curse of periodicity.

Indexed as

crystal structure predictionDiffCSPdiffusion modelgenerative modelGNoMEinverse designmachine-learning interatomic potentialmaterials designMatterGenuniversal interatomic potential

Identifiers

PMID42328199
PMCPMC13280719

What OpenQuestion holds

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LicenceCC BY
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Registered trials

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.