GraphAgents: Knowledge Graph-Guided Agentic AI for Cross-Domain Materials Design

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Stewart, Isabella A., Hage, Tarjei Paule, Hsu, Yu-Chuan, Buehler, Markus J.
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
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author Stewart, Isabella A.
Hage, Tarjei Paule
Hsu, Yu-Chuan
Buehler, Markus J.
author_facet Stewart, Isabella A.
Hage, Tarjei Paule
Hsu, Yu-Chuan
Buehler, Markus J.
contents Large Language Models (LLMs) promise to accelerate discovery by reasoning across the expanding scientific landscape. Yet, the challenge is no longer access to information but connecting it in meaningful, domain-spanning ways. In materials science, where innovation demands integrating concepts from molecular chemistry to mechanical performance, this is especially acute. Neither humans nor single-agent LLMs can fully contend with this torrent of information, with the latter often prone to hallucinations. To address this bottleneck, we introduce a multi-agent framework guided by large-scale knowledge graphs to find sustainable substitutes for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS)-chemicals currently under intense regulatory scrutiny. Agents in the framework specialize in problem decomposition, evidence retrieval, design parameter extraction, and graph traversal, uncovering latent connections across distinct knowledge pockets to support hypothesis generation. Ablation studies show that the full multi-agent pipeline outperforms single-shot prompting, underscoring the value of distributed specialization and relational reasoning. We demonstrate that by tailoring graph traversal strategies, the system alternates between exploitative searches focusing on domain-critical outcomes and exploratory searches surfacing emergent cross-connections. Illustrated through the exemplar of biomedical tubing, the framework generates sustainable PFAS-free alternatives that balance tribological performance, thermal stability, chemical resistance, and biocompatibility. This work establishes a framework combining knowledge graphs with multi-agent reasoning to expand the materials design space, showcasing several initial design candidates to demonstrate the approach.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2602_07491
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle GraphAgents: Knowledge Graph-Guided Agentic AI for Cross-Domain Materials Design
Stewart, Isabella A.
Hage, Tarjei Paule
Hsu, Yu-Chuan
Buehler, Markus J.
Artificial Intelligence
Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics
Materials Science
Soft Condensed Matter
Machine Learning
Large Language Models (LLMs) promise to accelerate discovery by reasoning across the expanding scientific landscape. Yet, the challenge is no longer access to information but connecting it in meaningful, domain-spanning ways. In materials science, where innovation demands integrating concepts from molecular chemistry to mechanical performance, this is especially acute. Neither humans nor single-agent LLMs can fully contend with this torrent of information, with the latter often prone to hallucinations. To address this bottleneck, we introduce a multi-agent framework guided by large-scale knowledge graphs to find sustainable substitutes for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS)-chemicals currently under intense regulatory scrutiny. Agents in the framework specialize in problem decomposition, evidence retrieval, design parameter extraction, and graph traversal, uncovering latent connections across distinct knowledge pockets to support hypothesis generation. Ablation studies show that the full multi-agent pipeline outperforms single-shot prompting, underscoring the value of distributed specialization and relational reasoning. We demonstrate that by tailoring graph traversal strategies, the system alternates between exploitative searches focusing on domain-critical outcomes and exploratory searches surfacing emergent cross-connections. Illustrated through the exemplar of biomedical tubing, the framework generates sustainable PFAS-free alternatives that balance tribological performance, thermal stability, chemical resistance, and biocompatibility. This work establishes a framework combining knowledge graphs with multi-agent reasoning to expand the materials design space, showcasing several initial design candidates to demonstrate the approach.
title GraphAgents: Knowledge Graph-Guided Agentic AI for Cross-Domain Materials Design
topic Artificial Intelligence
Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics
Materials Science
Soft Condensed Matter
Machine Learning
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.07491