Commercial Li-ion cells of Type 18650 dimensions and prismatic designs from different manufacturers have been tested to evaluate their performance and to study their thermal behavior using electrochemical-calorimetric methods. All cells tested in this work showed good performance and cyclability under normal operating conditions. The measured heat effect for the cells were exothermic during discharge and partially endothermic during charge. Cell impedance was measured for selected cells and showed some dependence on the state of charge or depth of discharge, with significant increase at the end of discharge due to concentration polarization. The entropy coefficient (d E-eq/dT) for the A&T (18650) and Panasonic (CGR 18650) cells were measured using potentiometric methods at different depths of discharge (DOD). The measured values for both cells showed some dependence on the DOD with some perturbation near 4.0 V, where the measured d E-eq/dT for Panasonic cell had an unexpected positive value. This was found to be consistent with the measured endothermic heat effect during discharge for the Panasonic cell near E-eq = 4.0 V. This may be related to a phase change in the LiCoO2 cathode material, as reported in the literature, and to structural transformation in the graphite used as anode material, in the Panasonic cell. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.