High capacity electrodes based on Ge composite anode and commercial LiCoO2 cathode, are evaluated and combined to fabricate a high energy lithium ion battery. The Ge composite anode, Ge/CHNs (Gel carbon hybrid nanoparticles), is prepared with a co-precipitation followed by pyrolysis process, delivering a capacity of >1000 mA h g(-1) over 2000 cycles. While for full cell assembling, galvanostatic cycling in lithium half-cells has been applied for prelithiating Ge/CHNs anodes to eliminate the first cycle irreversible capacity loss. Such process is shown to enable capacity matching between Ge/CHNs anodes and LiCoO2 cathodes, further influence the working voltage and cycle stability of the full cells. Finally, the lithium ion battery system based on the prelithiated Ge/CHNs anode and LiCoO2 cathode demonstrates a high energy density of 370 Wh kg(-1) after 300 cycles between 2.7 and 4.4 V at 1C (the energy density here is based on the total weight of Ge/CHNs and LiCoO2), with average capacity fading about 0.018% per cycle. Thus, the designed battery system is promising candidate for energy storage applications with demand of high energy density and long cycle life. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.