Nano-Si composite with a < 10 nm homogenous porous carbon coating layer was fabricated by a facile approach with phenolic resin as carbon source, Pluronic 123 (P123) as pore forming agent and cetyl-trimethyl ammonium bromide (CTAB) as surfactant. The composite electrode exhibited a high lithium storage capacity of 960 mAh g(-1) over 100 cycles at 1 A g(-1) and could maintain reversible capacities of 810 mAh g(-1) at 0.5 A g(-1) over 400 cycles. The superior electrochemical performance could be due to the homogeneous and unique porous thin carbon shell for Si. (C) 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.