Rational Design of Heat-Resistant Polymers with Low Curing Energies by a Materials Genome Approach

Designing high-temperature polymers with excellent processability is a long-standing challenge because of the implacable contradiction between high thermal stability and low curing energy. Traditional designs based on scientific intuition and trial-and-error experiments have not been efficient strategies for the discovery of new heat-resistant resins. In this work, we developed a materials genome approach to facilitate the design of new heat-resistant resins with the desired properties. By defining the gene and extracting key features for properties, we proposed a two-step strategy to screen candidate resins obtained from combinations of genes. A new kind of heat-resistant resin was predicted by rapid screening and was further verified by theoretical simulations and experimental studies. The basic framework developed for the present materials genome approach can be generalized for the rapid design of other high-performance materials.