Lithium-ion batteries are now well known and widely available commercially. The vast majority use lithium cobalt oxide or variants as the cathode material. This has the advantage of good performance but the cost of the cobalt is high and it is slightly toxic. Iron would be preferable on grounds of cost and safety but unfortunately lithium iron oxides cannot be cycled. Iron compounds are cheap and iron sulphides can readily be obtained as minerals, without the need for chemical synthesis. However, to make a lithium-ion battery, the cathode material must contain lithium so the iron sulphide must be lithiated to use this as a cathode material. This can be synthesised by literature methods involving solid state syntheses at high temperature for long times. New syntheses have been developed which are much quicker and easier. Results on cycling of lithium-ion cells using lithiated iron sulphide prepared by the new method will be described using laboratory and envelope (pouch) cells. Because of the use of cheaper materials, these should be preferable to existing technology, particularly for larger size applications, such as electric vehicles. (C) 2004 Published by Elsevier B.V.