ZnO/mesoporous carbon nanocomposites have been prepared from polyvinyl alcohol, zinc nitrate hexahydrate and ammonium hydroxide via a facile, scalable precipitation method followed by a calcination process. XRD, N-2 adsorption, TEM, TGA and FT-IR were used to investigate the composition and microstructure of the obtained product. The electrochemical properties of ZnO/C and ZnO electrodes were comparatively studied by constant current charge-discharge and cyclic voltammetry. ZnO nanoparticles with diameter around 6.3 nm are uniformly dispersed in the amorphous carbon matrix. ZnO/C nanocomposites as anode of lithium-ion battery deliver a stable reversible capacity of 610 mAh g(-1) at 100 mA g(-)1 even after 50 cycles, showing that ZnO/C nanocomposites have potential application for lithium-ion battery. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.