Transfer learning across different photocatalytic organic reactions

Abstract While seasoned organic chemists can often predict suitable catalysts for new reactions based on their past experiences in other catalytic reactions, developing this ability is costly, laborious and time-consuming. Therefore, replicating this remarkable expertize of human researchers through...

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Main Authors: Naoki Noto, Ryuga Kunisada, Tabea Rohlfs, Manami Hayashi, Ryosuke Kojima, Olga García Mancheño, Takeshi Yanai, Susumu Saito
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Nature Portfolio 2025-04-01
Series:Nature Communications
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-58687-5
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Summary:Abstract While seasoned organic chemists can often predict suitable catalysts for new reactions based on their past experiences in other catalytic reactions, developing this ability is costly, laborious and time-consuming. Therefore, replicating this remarkable expertize of human researchers through machine learning (ML) is compelling, albeit that it remains highly challenging. Herein, we apply a domain-adaptation-based transfer-learning (TL) approach to photocatalysis. Despite being different reaction types, the knowledge of the catalytic behavior of organic photosensitizers (OPSs) from photocatalytic cross-coupling reactions is successfully transferred to ML for a [2+2] cycloaddition reaction, improving the prediction of the photocatalytic activity compared with conventional ML approaches. Furthermore, a satisfactory predictive performance is achieved by using only ten training data points. This experimentally readily accessible small dataset can also be used to identify effective OPSs for alkene photoisomerization, thereby showcasing the potential benefits of TL in catalyst exploration.
ISSN:2041-1723