The performance of a Li-ion battery (LIB) is mainly governed by the diffusion capabilities of lithium in the electrodes. Thus, for LIB improvement it is essential to characterize the lithium distribution. Most of the traditionally used techniques for lithium characterization give information about the local scale or in the macroscopic scale. However, the lithium behavior at the local scale is not mirrored at the macroscopic scale. Therefore, the lithium characterization in the mesoscopic scale would be of help to understand and to connect the mechanisms taking place in the two spatial scales. In this paper, we show a general description of the capabilities and limitations of ion beam analysis techniques to study the distributions of lithium and other elements present in the electrodes in the mesoscopic scale. The potential of the Li-7(p,alpha(0))He-4 nuclear reaction to non-invasively examine the lithium distribution as a function of depth is illustrated. The lithium spatial distribution is characterized using particle induced gamma-ray (mu-PIGE) spectroscopy. This technique allows estimating the density of the active particles in the electrode effectively contributing to the Li intercalation and/or de-intercalation. The advantages of the use of ion beam analysis techniques in comparison to more traditional techniques for electrode characterization are discussed. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.