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Main Authors: Zhao, Changquan, Zhang, Yi, Li, Zhuo, Jin, Li, Hua, Cheng, He, Yulian
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.17393
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author Zhao, Changquan
Zhang, Yi
Li, Zhuo
Jin, Li
Hua, Cheng
He, Yulian
author_facet Zhao, Changquan
Zhang, Yi
Li, Zhuo
Jin, Li
Hua, Cheng
He, Yulian
contents Identifying optimal catalyst compositions and reaction conditions is central in catalysis research, yet remains challenging due to the vast multidimensional design spaces encompassing both continuous and categorical parameters. In this work, we present CatBOX, a Bayesian Optimization method for accelerated catalytic experimental design that jointly optimizes categorical and continuous experimental parameters. Our approach introduces a novel spectral mixture kernel that combines the inverse Fourier transform of Gaussian and Cauchy mixtures to provide a flexible representation of the continuous parameter space, capturing both smooth and non-smooth variations. Categorical choices, such as catalyst compositions and support types, are navigated via trust regions based on Hamming distance. For performance evaluation, CatBOX was theoretically verified based on information theory and benchmarked on a series of synthetic functions, achieving more than a 3-fold improvement relative to the best-performing baseline and a 19-fold improvement relative to random search on average across tasks. Additionally, three real-life catalytic experiments, including oxidative coupling of methane, urea-selective catalytic reduction, and direct arylation of imidazoles, were further used for in silico benchmarking, where CatBOX reliably identified top catalyst recipes and reaction conditions with the highest efficiencies in the absence of any a priori knowledge. Finally, we develop an open-source, code-free online platform to facilitate trial deployment in real experimental settings, particularly for self-driving laboratory environments.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2505_17393
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle CatBOX: A Categorical-Continuous Bayesian Optimization with Spectral Mixture Kernels for Accelerated Catalysis Experiments
Zhao, Changquan
Zhang, Yi
Li, Zhuo
Jin, Li
Hua, Cheng
He, Yulian
Machine Learning
Spectral Theory
Identifying optimal catalyst compositions and reaction conditions is central in catalysis research, yet remains challenging due to the vast multidimensional design spaces encompassing both continuous and categorical parameters. In this work, we present CatBOX, a Bayesian Optimization method for accelerated catalytic experimental design that jointly optimizes categorical and continuous experimental parameters. Our approach introduces a novel spectral mixture kernel that combines the inverse Fourier transform of Gaussian and Cauchy mixtures to provide a flexible representation of the continuous parameter space, capturing both smooth and non-smooth variations. Categorical choices, such as catalyst compositions and support types, are navigated via trust regions based on Hamming distance. For performance evaluation, CatBOX was theoretically verified based on information theory and benchmarked on a series of synthetic functions, achieving more than a 3-fold improvement relative to the best-performing baseline and a 19-fold improvement relative to random search on average across tasks. Additionally, three real-life catalytic experiments, including oxidative coupling of methane, urea-selective catalytic reduction, and direct arylation of imidazoles, were further used for in silico benchmarking, where CatBOX reliably identified top catalyst recipes and reaction conditions with the highest efficiencies in the absence of any a priori knowledge. Finally, we develop an open-source, code-free online platform to facilitate trial deployment in real experimental settings, particularly for self-driving laboratory environments.
title CatBOX: A Categorical-Continuous Bayesian Optimization with Spectral Mixture Kernels for Accelerated Catalysis Experiments
topic Machine Learning
Spectral Theory
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.17393