A Review of Machine Learning Potentials in the Study of Materials Properties

With the rapid advancement of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies and hardware capabilities, AI has gradually become a revolutionary tool driving transformative changes across multiple scientific research domains. In the field of materials science, machine learning methods are significant in high-throughput materials design and property prediction. Over the past decade, machine learning-based approaches for constructing interatomic potentials have been widely applied in the study of material properties, and are providing crucial support for the theoretical design of novel materials and in-depth understanding of their underlying microscopic mechanisms. This article reviews the development of machine learning potentials, and introduces their fundamental workflows. The principles of mainstream methods and their applications in materials property research are outlined. Moreover, recent progress in emerging universal potential models is briefly discussed, then concludes with an analysis of current challenges and future research directions.