[en] The combination of in situ X-ray diffraction (XRD) and x-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) is a very powerful technique in the study of lithium battery cathode materials. XRD identifies the phase changes that occur during cycling and XAS gives information on the redox charge compensation processes that occur on the transition metal oxides. Because of its element specific nature XAS can identify the occurrence of redox processes on the various cations in doped oxide cathode materials. Since XAS probes short range order and is particularly useful in the study of amorphous tin based composite oxide anode materials