A series of Ni doped NixCu6-xSn5 (x=0, 0.5, 1, 2, 4) alloys were prepared by mechanical alloying, followed by annealing at 400 degrees C. The Ni doped alloys show the similar structure with that of Cu6Sn5 and Ni3Sn2, which can be indexed to a hexagonal Ni2In type cell, but differ in the electrochemical performance as the anodes of Li-ion batteries. The electrochemical tests show that the cycling reversibility of NixCu6-xSn5 increases at the expense of the reversible capacity with the increasing amount of Ni content. The proper amount Ni doped alloy, Ni2Cu4Sn5 showed better cycle performance with a reversible capacity of 200 mAh g(-1) (1680 mAh ml(-1)). The relative stability of the alloy was also investigated using the first-principles density-functional theory with pseudopotentials and plane wave basis (VASP). (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.