Hierarchical mesoporous CuxCo3-xO4 nanosheets have been directly grown on Ti foil by a facile hydrothermal method and a subsequent annealing treatment. The rich porosity of the sample heated at 600 degrees C (CCO- 600) shows excellent electrochemical performance when as anode for Li-ion batteries. It exhibits very high initial discharge capacity of 1300 mAh g (1) at 300 mA g (1) (1C=1100 mA g (1)) and achieves reversible charge capacity as high as 335 mAh g (1) at the current density of 50 C. More importantly, when altering the current density back to 0.1 C, the charge capacity could be recovered to 1045 mAh g (1). Such high rate capability indicates that this hierarchical mesoporous CuxCo3-xO4 nanosheets material has great potential in lithium ion batteries. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.