ScopeMap: An AI-Assisted, Human-in-the-Loop Workflow for Mapping Reaction Scope and Boundaries
Abstract
Assessing the generality of synthetic methods is a cornerstone of organic chemistry, yet traditional manual selection and current optimization-driven algorithms often fail to delineate reaction boundaries, clustering instead in high-reactivity regions. Herein, we introduce ScopeMap, an iterative, human-in-the-loop workflow designed to efficiently map functional limits rather than merely maximizing performance. Leveraging a modified Centroidal Voronoi Tessellation (CVT) algorithm with a dynamic Geometric Repulsion Potential, ScopeMap transforms negative experimental feedback into geometric constraints, actively steering sampling toward unexplored frontiers. Validated against a comprehensive dataset of biomimetic aldol reactions and a cobalt-catalyzed coupling system, the workflow reconstructed >95% of the scope topology with significantly less experimental effort. Furthermore, we establish the U-Score and R-Score—metrics derived from Spatial Entropy and mean squared distance (MSD)—to provide a standardized framework for quantifying sampling uniformity and representativeness. This work offers a resource-efficient paradigm for defining reaction generality, shifting the focus from exhaustive data enumeration to information-dense boundary mapping.
Fields of Study & Subjects
Machine Learning in Materials Science
Computational Drug Discovery Methods
History and advancements in chemistry
Publication details
- Journal / source
- ChemRxiv
- Publication date
- 16 January 2026
- Document type
- Preprint