Tetrel (Tt ¼ Si, Ge, Sn) clathrates are host-guest materials comprising cage frameworks of Tt elements that encapsulate alkali metal and alkaline earth metal guest atoms. Well known as promising candidates for thermoelectric materials, [1] clathrates also have interesting properties for optoelectronics [2][3][4] and superconducting [5][6][7] applications. Due to the large interest in Tt elements as high-capacity Li-ion battery anodes, the electrochemical properties of Tt clathrates have also been investigated in recent years, revealing properties distinct from those of diamond cubic structured analogues. [8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18] For instance, the reaction of Li with the type-I clathrate Ba 8 Al 16 Si 30 is dominated by surface rather than bulk reactions, [15] whereas the Ba 8 Al y Ge 46-y (0 < y < 16) clathrate undergoes bulk phase transitions to form amorphous Li-Ba-Ge phases with local structures similar to those in Li-Ge crystalline phases. [10,16] For the type-II clathrate Na 24 Si 136 , the lithiation profile is similar to that for diamond cubic Si, [12] whereas Na 1.6 Si 136 displays one more similar to that of amorphous Si. [8] Due to the wide range of possible clathrate structures and compositions, [1] we are interested in establishing a better understanding of the structure-property relationships of clathrates within the context of Li-ion battery applications.Clathrates crystallize in a variety of structural types where different face-sharing polyhedra are built from tetrahedral bonding