Supercritical drying of V2O5 yields amorphous aerogels that serve as reversible, high capacity hosts for lithium-ion intercalation. We have found that aerogel material consists of a self-assembled highly interconnected solid network that has a surface area up to 450 m(2)/g. Here we report the synthesis of an electronically conductive mesoporous composite by the cryogenic deposition of RuO2 on high surface area V2O5 aerogel. This route preserves the free volume of the aerogel and supports, high rate intercalation because RuO2 increases the electronic conductivity of the structure.