Advances in the comparative study of the thermal behavior of graphite during the thermal runaway process are reviewed. The differential scanning calorimeter was used to evaluate the thermal runaway behavior of natural graphite (Mag-10) electrode material with different amounts of intercalated lithium ions. The effect of the polyvinylidene fluoride binder on the thermal behavior of a fully lithiated sample was also investigated. This is the first time it has been noted that graphite loses its structure with more than 0.7 intercalated lithium when electrolyte is present at high temperature by detecting the existence of (002) graphite X-ray diffraction peak. (C) 2004 The Electrochemical Society.