Prediction of ABX₃ Perovskite Formation Energy Using Machine Learning

Materials with perovskite phases are widely used in solar cells and ferroelectric, piezoelectric, dielectric and superconducting devices due to their various notable functions. However, structural instability limits some compositions in forming robust perovskite phases for device applications. The analytical approach using the tolerance factor (t) can only guarantee prediction accuracy within a limited range, ascribed to its nature of overlooking the atomic interaction. Hence, here we establish a prediction model using formation energy as the target parameter for its reflection of the reaction of atoms and apply machine learning as the analysis method since it has been successfully employed in plenty of material property prediction studies. Machine learning employs statistical methodologies to identify correlative patterns within large-scale datasets, enabling accurate predictions with robust generalization. In this work, we built a model to predict the formation energy of ABX₃ perovskite using machine learning and achieved a model with an R-squared value of 0.928 and a root mean square error of 0.301 eV/atom, validated by first-principles computations. In total, 75% of the values were correctly predicted within an error lower than 0.06. This work could contribute to accelerating the study of solving perovskites' instability.