ROLLA, Mo. — Batteries are everyday objects people don’t think about — until they run out of juice. That’s especially true the more ubiquitous an object is, such as laptop computers and cellphones that need to have their batteries charged seemingly every day.

But Missouri University of Science and Technology researchers are working to solve the problem of short-life of lithium-ion batteries like those used in laptops and cellphones, making them reliable and longer-lasting using a thin-film coating technique called atomic layer deposition (ALD). Their paper, titled “Employing Synergetic Effect of Doping and Thin-Film Coating to Boost the Performance of Lithium-Ion Battery Cathode Particles,” is being published today, Wednesday, May 4, in Scientific Reports, a Nature publishing group journal.

Researching ways to cure cancer and neurodegenerative diseases in the lab is painstaking, time-consuming and expensive. But a Missouri University of Science and Technology professor is using computer modeling to test drug therapies that one day could lead to cures for these conditions that kill millions each year.

Dr. Dipak Barua, assistant professor of chemical and biochemical engineering at Missouri S&T, is the principal investigator on a project funded with a Department of Energy grant for $112,377 on “countering pathogen interfaces with human defenses.”

“We use math and computational modeling as a tool to understand the mechanisms in cells, and we develop computational and mathematical models that make predictions” about what will happen with different therapies, Barua says.