This version of the comprehensive, searchable PED application, NIST Standard Reference Database 31, provides 33,700 phase equilibrium diagrams with fundamental information needed to discover or optimize materials for applications ranging from semiconductor manufacturing to cement to biomarkers. The data include experimental and calculated diagrams for a wide range of non-organic material-types including oxides and mixed systems with oxides, chalcogenides (sulfides, selenides, tellurides), pnictides (N, P, As, Sb, Bi), actinides (U, Pu, Th) and actinide- surrogates (Ce), oxy-cation systems (e.g. sulfates, nitrates, molybdates, vanadates), semiconductors (Si, Ge, Sn), group-3 systems (B, Al, Ga, In, Tl), and salts including mixed systems with salts. The phase diagrams in the collection are pertinent to a broad spectrum of technologies including optoelectronics, sensors, transducers, energy-storage, fuel cells, photovoltaics, radioactive waste-management, nuclear reactors, catalysts, lasers, batteries, pigments, data-storage, metallurgical processing, and bioceramics.

This application includes all content previously published in the hard-copy series of numbered "Blue" books (Phase Diagrams for Ceramists; Phase Equilibria Diagrams) as well as all special-issue topical volumes. After Volume 14 (2005), publication transitioned to the current all-digital format. Version 6.0 adds Volume 27, with 165 new Figures and 755 new diagrams containing information for 170 material-systems not previously covered by the database.

The content management system (CMS) used to develop and produce this database is a custom-developed web-based system running under Ubuntu Linux using the Ruby programming language. The system (developed by Prometheus Computing, LLC) uses the Nginx web server, an SQLite database, and an object relational mapper for the GUI.

As for previous versions, the user-friendly Version 6.0 search interface is browser-based and includes help icons at each input text box. In addition to the previously available search criteria (chemical system, author, publication year, PED volume, etc.) users are now able to perform keyword searches of the text of the critical evaluations of all PED Figures. This is useful when seeking diagrams for material systems associated with potential applications mentioned in the commentary. In response to customer feedback, the USB 6.0 version features a new custom windowing system rather than a bundled version of Google Chrome, which will improve and streamline use of the PC product.

As introduced in the series-5 versions, 6.0 uses the JavaScript PED Viewer for interactive display and manipulation (e.g. mol% - wt% conversions) of the diagrams (see Viewer Help next to the main Help menu). The PED application is now self-contained and no longer requires installation of Java, although diagrams can still be downloaded and opened using the legacy (Java-based) PED Viewer (see Help menu, Legacy (Java) PED Viewer, for details).

Information in the database is available to the user for viewing, downloading, and printing in two formats:

1. All PED Figures are available as high-quality .pdf files which provide the commentary text as well as all diagrams, similar to the previous entries in the hard-copy books (View Figure, or click on PED Fig. No.).
2. All phase diagrams can be interactively displayed using the PED Viewer (View Diagram or click on thumbnail), and can be printed as high-quality .pdf files or downloaded as .png or .jpg files with customized resolution.

The new content provided here in Version 6.0 continues to reflect the explosion of research on the fundamental properties of materials needed to enable the transition to lower-cost and more efficient technologies and approaches to manufacturing, including the processing of raw materials and recycling/recovery of critical minerals from secondary sources or low-grade ores. New chemical systems and diagrams in v.6.0 address needs to advance a wide variety of applications including hydrogen-production by electrolysis of water, thermal-energy storage and heat-transfer media for concentrated solar power (CSP), advanced molten-salt nuclear reactors (complex salt systems for fuel; thorium fuel-cycle; corrosion), immobilization of radioactive waste, lead-free photovoltaics with high conversion efficiencies, optical information-processing, batteries, semiconductors (processing and new materials), next-generation electronics (e.g. phase-change memories, topological insulators for quantum memories) lasers for optoelectronics, and advanced dental porcelain and other biomaterials.

Before using Version 6.0 please see Information You Need to Use this Application .

Users are invited to submit feedback to phase3@ceramics.org.

Materials researchers please note: The legacy PED Editor (Java-based) digitization program is available as a free download and can be used 1) to digitize phase diagrams and 2) to extract data from phase diagrams or other two-dimensional scientific drawings - see https://www.nist.gov/srd/nist-standard-reference-database-31 and https://pages.nist.gov/PEDEditor/