A facile templating method was used to fabricate a Magnetite (Fe3O4) nanotubes coated carbon cloth electrode as anode for lithium ion batteries in this work. In hope of achieving high-performance and stable electrode, ZnO nanorods were first electrodeposited and subsequently used as sacrificial templates for synthesis of Fe3O4 nanotubes arrays. According to structural analysis, this strategy led to a uniform nanotubes-like coating attached on interwoven carbon fiber of the three-dimensional (3D) carbon cloth. Unexpectedly, it was found that the nanotube structure was assembled from numerous nanoparticles that formed up a hierarchical structure with 3D arrangement inherited from carbon cloth substrate. The as-prepared electrode delivered excellent rate capability, giving a maximal specific capacity of similar to 930 mAh g(-1) at 2 A g(-1) but a relatively poor cycling retention of 73% after 200 cycles. This is attributed to the severe agglomeration of nanocrystalline Fe3O4 particles upon repeated cycling, revealing the fact that small particles accounting for high rate performance might in turn undermine the cycling stability. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.