State of my Research Project

At this point in time I believe that I have decided to do my project on battery research.  Secondary batteries are growing in intrest becase they are one of many paths that could lead towards energy independence.  The problem with these batteries is that the life span is not very good.  After the battery has charged and discharged a number of times, the battery life keeps gettting shorter and shorter.  A part of battery research is finding out about new materials that will prolong the life of the battery.  One way to approach the problem is to have theoretical chemists do calculations on what compositions would work when trying to build a battery.  Once the calculations are completed, the information is given to a materials scientist who will try to build the compound and test the batteries by charging and then discharging the battery, also called cycling.  The data that is collected can be put into a graph where the battery preformance can be viewed.