Degradation phenomena and inference of their underlying mechanisms during 2 C cycle aging in a cell design comprising {LiMn(1/3)Ni(1/3)Co(1/3)O(2) + LiMn(2)O(4)} composite positive electrode are studied and reported in this work. We describe how aging phenomena in the cells were studied and incremental capacity analysis applied to infer cell degradation mechanisms in the cycle aging process. Two stages of degradation were observed in the life cycle under this aging regime. In the first stage, we conclude that loss of lithium inventory was the cause of capacity fade. As a result of such parasitic loss, the cell further suffered from loss of active materials in the second stage, in which the positive electrode kinetics was hampered and the capacity loss accelerated. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.