Nanowire arrays present an excellent candidate for high performance lithium-ion battery electrodes. However, agglomeration in long nanowire arrays impedes nanowire-based electrodes from delivering high areal capacity, by degrading the nanoscale wires to micro-sized bundles and reducing the mechanical stability. In this study, we develop a simple way to fabricate three-dimensional (3D) nickel-tin (Ni-Sn) nanowire networks by using 3D porous anodic alumina templates synthesized from low-cost impure aluminum foils. By eliminating agglomeration, stable high areal capacity anodes are demonstrated with 3D self-supporting Ni-Sn nanowire network structures. With a nanowire length of 40 mu m, the 3D Ni-Sn nanowire networks can deliver an areal capacity as high as 4.3 mAh cm(-2) with a cycle life longer than 50 cycles. The 3D Ni-Sn nanowire networks also exhibit an excellent rate capability with 72% of the capacity retained when the test rate increases from C/5 to 6C. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.