China: AI-powered lab in China's Anhui speeds up new material discovery.

Storyline AI-powered lab in China's Anhui speeds up new material discovery Chinese scientists are using AI to accelerate the discovery of advanced materials, reducing research timelines from years to months. Doctoral student Fang Tiancheng from the University of Science and Technology of China and a team of researchers have developed a safer firefighter suit. His team's plan was to find a new material that absorbs heat and releases gas to dissipate it. But the work required expertise across more than a dozen fields. Fang Tiancheng, doctoral student, University of Science and Technology of China (USTC)： "Much of the knowledge was outside my field. I thought it would take forever to make any progress." Instead, he turned to an AI-driven innovation platform. Through repeated simulation, he and his team found a research approach that few had ever considered. Jiang Jun, director, AI for Science Center for Matter Creation, USTC： "He used the large model to find a high-energy reaction pathway from traditional knowledge bases in the mining and metallurgy field. Because the process consumes too much energy, very few people had ever used it. But for our purpose, it was exactly what we needed. It could quickly dissipate energy." In about four months, Fang's team developed a new flame-retardant material. Within a year, it became a finished product that now helps extend firefighter protection from roughly ten seconds to thirty minutes. The AI-innovation platform also supports researchers developing biometric materials for robotics and solid-state electrolytes for next-generation batteries. [Restrictions: No access Chinese mainland]