Machine learned features from density of states for accurate adsorption energy prediction

Materials databases generated by high-throughput computational screening, typically using density functional theory (DFT), have become valuable resources for discovering new heterogeneous catalysts, though the computational cost associated with generating them presents a crucial roadblock. Hence there is a significant demand for developing descriptors or features, in lieu of DFT, to accurately predict catalytic properties, such as adsorption energies. Here, we demonstrate an approach to predict energies using a convolutional neural network-based machine learning model to automatically obtain key features from the electronic density of states (DOS). The model, DOSnet, is evaluated for a diverse set of adsorbates and surfaces, yielding a mean absolute error on the order of 0.1 eV. In addition, DOSnet can provide physically meaningful predictions and insights by predicting responses to external perturbations to the electronic structure without additional DFT calculations, paving the way for the accelerated discovery of materials and catalysts by exploration of the electronic space.