diff --git a/src/graphs.py b/src/graphs.py
index 40a09b3..a3ac282 100644
--- a/src/graphs.py
+++ b/src/graphs.py
@@ -14,7 +14,7 @@
 class AtomsGraph:
     """Create graph representation of a collection of atoms."""
 
-    def __init__(self, atoms, select_idx, max_atoms=50):
+    def __init__(self, atoms, select_idx, pad=True, max_atoms=50):
         """Initialize variables of the class.
 
         Parameters
@@ -32,6 +32,7 @@ def __init__(self, atoms, select_idx, max_atoms=50):
         # Save parameters
         self.atoms = atoms
         self.select_idx = select_idx
+        self.pad = pad
         self.max_atoms = max_atoms
 
         # Create graph
@@ -108,7 +109,8 @@ def create_graph(self):
                 graph.add_edge(n, self.map_idx_node[nn], bond_distance=bond_dist)
 
         # Pad graph
-        graph = self.pad_graph(graph)
+        if self.pad:
+            graph = self.pad_graph(graph)
 
         # Add coordination numbers
         for n in graph.nodes():
diff --git a/src/utils.py b/src/utils.py
index 0d3592a..8436778 100644
--- a/src/utils.py
+++ b/src/utils.py
@@ -53,6 +53,7 @@ def featurize_atoms(
     select_idx,
     node_features,
     edge_features,
+    pad=True,
     max_atoms=50,
     encoder=OneHotEncoder(),
 ):
@@ -74,6 +75,9 @@ def featurize_atoms(
         Names of edge featurizers to use (current options: bulk_bond_distance,
         surface_bond_distance, adsorbate_bond_distance). All of these encode
         bond distance using a one-hot encoder, but the bounds for each vary.
+    pad: bool
+        If True, the graph is padded to ensure the number of nodes is equal to
+        max_atoms. In that case, the blank nodes have all 0s in their node tensors.
     max_atoms: int (default = 50)
         Maximum number of allowed atoms. If the number of atoms in the graph are
         fewer than this number, the graph is padded with empty nodes. This is
@@ -89,7 +93,8 @@ def featurize_atoms(
         corresponding tensors as values.
     """
     # Create graph
-    atoms_graph = AtomsGraph(atoms=atoms, select_idx=select_idx, max_atoms=max_atoms)
+    atoms_graph = AtomsGraph(atoms=atoms, select_idx=select_idx, max_atoms=max_atoms,
+                             pad=pad)
 
     # Collect node featurizers
     node_feats = []
@@ -140,7 +145,7 @@ def featurize_atoms(
 
     atoms = read("CONTCAR")
 
-    part_atoms = partition_structure(atoms, 3, z_cutoffs=[15, 23.5])
+    part_atoms = partition_structure(atoms, z_cutoffs=[15, 23.5])
     print(part_atoms)
 
     feat_dict = featurize_atoms(
@@ -149,5 +154,6 @@ def featurize_atoms(
         ["atomic_number", "dband_center"],
         ["bulk_bond_distance"],
         max_atoms=34,
+        pad=False,
     )
     print(feat_dict)