An innovative route to obtain Ni/NiO core-shell foam-based anodes for lithium-ion batteries is presented. Commercial Ni foams are conformally coated with NiO by ionic liquid-based electrodeposition. The electrochemical behavior of the resulting Ni/NiO electrodes in half coin cells with lithium counter electrode is investigated. The results are qualitatively correlated to the microstructural properties, including effects of the thermal annealing at 500 degrees C, of the NiO shell. The formation a NiO sub-layer by the thermal oxidation of the Ni foam seems to play a crucial role in the enhanced performance of the annealed Ni/NiO anodes, which exhibit a reversible discharge capacity around 0.8 mAh/cm(2). Furthermore, the Ni/NiO core-shell foam-based anodes are evaluated in full coin Li-ion cells with high voltage LiMn0.8Fe0.2PO4 cathode. Promising cyclability is reached in NiO-LMFP coin cells under cycling at 0.4C. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.