TiO

2

microspheres containing carbon have been synthesized viaa one-pot hydrothermal process using CTAB as the mesoporous template and nanoparticle stabilizer and Ti(SO

4

)

2

and sucrose as titanium and carbon precursors

respectively. Through well designed calcinations

TiO

2

microspheres with various amounts of carbon-residue

such as core/shell C@TiO

2

hollow neat H-TiO

2

and hollow C/TiO

2

composites

are obtained.When these microspheres are used as anode materials for lithium ion batteries

the lithium storage performance is significantly influenced by the structure and carbon-residue. With a thin shell of TiO

2

nanoparticles and carbon-residue

the capacity of hollow C/TiO

2

composites maintains at 143.3 mA·h·g

-1

at 0.5 C (83.5 mA·g

-1

) after 100 cycles. Moreover

after high rate charge/discharge cycles from 0.2 C to 20 C and back to 0.2 C again

the reversible capacity recovers atas high as 195.1 mA·h·g

-1

with respect to its initial value of 205.0 mA·h·g

-1

. The results of cycle voltammograms and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy further reveal that Li

+

insertion/extraction processes

are reversible

and the diffusion coefficient of Li

+

in the hollow C/TiO

2

composites is much higher than those of others

because the hollow structure can act as the ion-buffering reservoir and facilitate Li

+

transfer from both sides of the shell

and the carbon-residue in the shell improves the conductivity as well.