Battery 500 project, IBM research. Standard coin cell (battery) being tested using the Bio-Logic potentiostat. This is part of the Battery 500 experimental research project at the IBM Almaden Research Center, San Jose, California, USA. The project involves improving batteries used in electric cars. Started in 2009, the project aims to develop a new type of lithium-air battery technology to improve energy density tenfold and increase the amount of energy such batteries can generate and store. A potentiostat is used to characterise batteries as they discharge and recharge. Photographed in 2011.