Germanium-based anode materials suffer from huge volume expansion during the lithium ion insertion/extraction process, along with particle agglomeration, resulting in electrodes destruction and batteries failure. Ge nanoparticles embedded in spherical ordered mesoporous carbon (S-OMC/Ge) composite could effectively alleviate the defects in the cycle, which provided a novel material with stable cycle performance, high capacity and good conductivity. The S-OMC/Ge composite maintained reversible capacities of 996 mAh.g(-1) after 160 cycles at a current density of 100 mA g(-1) and 530 mAh.g(-1) at a high rate of 1 A g(-1), attributed to the synergistic effect between the support of spherical OMC and the high capacity provided by dispersed Ge particles. (C) 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.