Mesoporous carbon (MC) spheres with hierarchical pores, controlled pore volume and high specific surface areas have been prepared by a mass-producible spray drying assisted template method using sodium alginate as carbon precursor and commercial colloidal silica particles as hard template. The resulting MC spheres, possessing hierarchical pores in the range of 3-30 nm, are employed as conductive matrices for the preparation of cathode materials for lithium-sulfur batteries. A high pressure induced one-step impregnation of elemental sulfur into the pore of the MC spheres has been exploited. The electrochemical performances of sulfur-impregnated MC spheres (S-MC) derived from MC spheres with different pore volume and specific surface area but with the same sulfur loading ratio of 60 wt% (S-MC-X-60) have been investigated in details. The S-MC-4-60 composite cathode material displayed a high initial discharge capacity of 1388 mAhg(-1) and a good cycling stability of 857 mAhg(-1) after 100 cycles at 0.2C, and shows also excellent rate capability of 864 mAhg(-1) at 2C. More importantly, the sulfur loading content in MC-4 spheres can reach as high as 80%, and it still can deliver a capacity of 569 mAhg(-1) after 100 cycles at 0.2C. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.