Does repeat synthesis in materials chemistry obey a power law?

Area of Science:

• Materials Science
• Chemistry
• Scientific Reproducibility

Background:

• Assessing the reproducibility of experimental measurements is crucial for scientific data validation.
• Tracking repeat syntheses in scientific literature provides quantitative insights into replication frequency.
• Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are a significant class of materials with diverse applications.

Purpose of the Study:

• To quantitatively assess the frequency of repeated material synthesis in scientific literature.
• To develop and validate a power-law model for predicting repeat synthesis occurrences.
• To identify factors influencing the replication of newly reported materials, particularly MOFs.

Main Methods:

• Collected quantitative data on the synthesis of newly reported materials from scientific literature.
• Developed a power-law model to describe the frequency of repeat syntheses.
• Assessed the model's validity using data from metal-organic frameworks (MOFs).
• Analyzed the distribution of replication frequencies to identify deviations from the model.

Main Results:

• A power-law model effectively describes the frequency of repeat syntheses for many MOFs.
• A small subset of MOFs, termed "supermaterials," exhibit replication frequencies significantly exceeding the power-law prediction.
• Data suggest a substantial number of replicate syntheses are performed but not published.

Conclusions:

• The frequency of material synthesis replication in the literature can be modeled using a power law.
• The existence of "supermaterials" indicates unique properties driving extensive research and replication.
• Encouraging the reporting of all replicate experiments could significantly enhance the visibility of reproducibility efforts in materials chemistry.