TECHNOLOGY FOCUS - ELECTRICAL POWER AND ENERGY - Preferred Particle: The graphite core comprises natural, artificial or pseudo-graphite. The non-graphitizable carbon material has inter planar spacing of 0.37 nm or greater. The weight percentage of graphite is 50-85 (preferably 75)% based upon the total weight of the particle. The particle has an average diameter of 5-15 microns    TECHNOLOGY FOCUS - POLYMERS - Preferred Method: The carbon precursor resin comprises a crosslinked polymer, which is chemically synthesized in situ on a surface of the core. The resin is from epoxy resins, furfural alcohol resins and polyaniline resins. The particle further comprises a binder on the graphite core and non-graphitizable carbon material. EXAMPLE - A mixture was prepared from 10 g of natural graphite powder and 15 g of acetone. To the mixture, 7 g of E44 (RTM) (epoxy resin) and 0.63 g of ethylene diamine (crosslinking catalyst and reactant) were added. The resulting mixture was ground in an agate mortar until the acetone evaporated and the epoxy resin was cured. After curing, the graphite/epoxy precursor was still as fine a powder as the original graphite powder. The particle of the precursor had a graphite core embedded into a crosslinked epoxy resin.    The graphite/epoxy carbon precursor powder was placed in a tube furnace having an inert argon atmosphere. The powder was then heated to 1000degreesC at a heating rate of 5degreesC/min. The product was then held at 1000degreesC for 5 hours. After cooling to room temperature in the furnace, the composite carbon was ground to a fine powder to obtain epoxy coke/graphite composite carbon particles.    The inter planar spaces of the graphite core and epoxy coke were determined with x-ray diffraction to be 0.346 nm and 0.378 nm, respectively. The composite carbon product (Sample A) contained 75 wt.% graphite and 25 wt.% non-graphitizable carbon.    The composite carbon product was mixed with 5 wt.% polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) emulsion binder solution (containing about 60% PTFE). The mixture was then rolled into films having a thickness of 150 microns.    A button cell battery (a simple test cell) was used to characterize the electrochemical properties of the composite carbon anode, where the composite carbon film was used as the working electrode, lithium film was used as the counter electrode and 1 M LiCIO4 in PC-EC-DME (4:3:3) was used as the non-aqueous electrolyte solution. During discharge of the lithium metal in the test cells, lithium ions were intercalated into the composite particles, and deintercalated during charging. The charge/discharge was galvanostatically performed within a voltage range of 0.001-2.00V.    In order to test the rechargeable life of the button cell, the deintercalation capacities of the 2nd and 20th cycles of the composite carbon film were determined. The capacity of the 2nd cycle was 320 (355) mAh/g and the capacity of the 20th cycle was 322 (265) mAh/g. The results in brackets are for a comparative cell in which the working electrode contained 100 wt.% graphite and no non-graphitizable carbon. The inventive Sample A provided excellent rechargeability as shown by the lack of capacity degradation.