The homogeneous yolk-shell TiO2 hierarchical microspheres (TiO2 HYSHMs) consisting of small nanoparticles have been fabricated through a facile template-free solvothermal reaction followed by calcination. The obtained samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, nitrogen adsorption/desorption analysis and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. It was found that the microspheres have porous shell (similar to 100 nm in thickness) composed of small nanoparticles with an average diameter of 10 nm. The interspace between the yolk and shell is similar to 150 nm. The BET specific surface area and pore volume of the sample are 151.1 m(2) g(-1) and 0.23 cm(3) g(-1), respectively. Ostwald ripening processes are proposed to explain the growth mechanism of the TiO2 HYSHMs based on a series of time-dependent experiments. As the anode materials for the lithium ion batteries, TiO2 HYSHMs exhibit a high initial discharge capacity of 267.6 mAh g(-1) at 0.25 C and retain 191 mAh g(-1) even after 40 cycles, indicating good electrochemical performance. These good electrochemical performances could be attributed to the short Li-ion and electron pathways, and enough elastic buffer space to accommodate large volume variation of the special yolk-shell hierarchical structure. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.