Sparked primarily by the need for safe, portable, high-voltage energy storage, lithium ion (Li-ion) batteries have been heavily researched over the past three decades. The advancement of nanostructured electrode compounds has opened up the field of polyanionic materials and Si-based composites as positive and negative electrode materials respectively. Promising new materials with high capacity and high potential have driven interest in this field. This review will highlight and summarize developments of the field in the past 5 years, with a focus on polyanionic materials based on phosphates, silicates and sulfates and Si/C nanostructured compounds. Crown Copyright (C) 2012 Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.