Gas swelling behaviour is a major drawback of batteries that are based on Li4Ti5O12 anode materials and hinders their application. In this article, the morphology and electronic structure changes of Li4Ti5O12 electrodes at ageing and cycling stages are investigated using scanning electron microscopy, X-ray absorption near-edge structure and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. A simple method that uses an air bag to collect the generated gases was conducted and the gases were then characterised by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry. The results indicate that the charge transformation of Ti ions would aggravate the gas swelling behaviour. The solid electrolyte interphase (SEI) films form on the surface of the Li4Ti5O12 particles and become thicker with increasing charge state. The gas components change significantly during the ageing and cycling, indicating the complexity of the gas swelling mechanism. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.