context: The normalized voltage characteristics for the 1st and 2nd cycles at C/20 (standard CC protocol) for Li[Li0.2Mn0.6Ni0.1Co0.1]O2 are presented in Fig. 2. During the 1st charge, we observed a rapid increase of the potential up to 4.4 V followed by a pseudo-plateau, while during the 1st discharge, the potential declines down to 3.5 V and a subsequent long pseudo-plateau was registered. The observed substantial hysteresis between charge and discharge potentials suggests: (i) sluggish kinetics of the occurring process and (ii) structural reorganization taking place. Comparing the 1st and 2nd cycles, we noticed that the 2nd charge characteristics do not show a large pseudo-plateau between 4.4 and 4.8 V but rather a monotonic S-type shape. Interestingly the potential of the 2nd discharge curve is slightly higher than that of the 1st discharge. In turn, the lower potential for the 2nd charge characteristics (in relation to the 1st one) leads to much lower hysteresis for the 2nd cycle compared with that for the initial one. This transition from stair-case to S-type potential characteristics between the 1st and 2nd cycles is commonly observed for other Li-rich NMC compounds; however the exact mechanism is still elusive and will be investigated further in this study. Comparing the discharge capacities at various current densities (Fig. 3a), the significant discharge capacity fade from approximately 350 to 290 mA h g−1 during the first two cycles is observed. Furthermore, the specific charge only slightly responds to the increase of the current loads and each rate increase (C/20, C/10, C/5, C/2, and 1C) is followed by a minor decrease of the practical specific charge until reaching 150 mA h g−1 at a 1C rate. Going back to the C/20 rate leads to an increase of the discharge capacity slightly below 250 mA h g−1. A similar observation was made in other reports within the literature where the first discharge capacity is above 300 mA h g−1 and after a few cycles it drops to ca. 250 mA h g−1 comparable to that in our paper. We suspect that most probably the anomalously high discharge capacity is due to the nanosize of primary particles which have a very high total surface area and as such enhance the electrolyte decomposition, increasing the observed specific charge. It is also worth noticing that after rate capability tests, during the second cyclic tests at C/20 the material works with a reversible capacity of 250 mA h g−1, suggesting most probably that the observed very high initial discharge capacity is due to the parasitic reactions. Voltage profiles for the second cycles registered at various current loads are shown in Fig. 3b and exhibit almost the same S-type character, confirming that reorganization taking place between the 1st and 2nd cycles persists in the following tests.