Facile synthesis and electrochemical performance of a Co3O4 nanoparticles/porous carbon composite used as an anode in Li-ion batteries is reported in this work. Co3O4 nanoparticles (5-10 nm in size) were embedded in a disordered porous carbon network using a simple template-free chemical method. The synthesized composite work well as an anode material for Li-ion batteries by delivering stable cycle life and highly reversible capacities of 480 mAhg-1 at 500mAg-1, which is higher than that of commercially available graphite electrodes and is comparable to values reported for Co3O4/graphene composites.