Oak Ridge AI assembles custom materials atom by atom for 25+ hours
Dr_Singularity · x · 2026-09-04
Researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory published a study in ACS Nano describing an AI-driven system that autonomously guides an ultra-sharp microscope tip to push individual molecules across copper, building custom atom-scale patterns. It ran over 25 hours without human intervention and assembled a 37-molecule artificial graphene lattice with the expected electronic behavior. The long-term goal is inverse design: specify a material property, and the AI figures out and physically builds the required atomic structure.
Related event: ORNL's AI System Autonomously Builds Artificial Graphene Atom by Atom(4 posts)→
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