TECHNOLOGY FOCUS - ELECTRICAL POWER AND ENERGY - Preferred Components: The battery is lithium-ion, aluminum-ion, magnesium-ion, sodium-ion, metal-air, and metal-sulfur batteries, where the metal is lithium, aluminum, magnesium, zinc or sodium. The battery has at least a 25% higher capacity at a rate of C/10, at least a 75% higher capacity at a rate of 1 C, and/or at least a 300% higher capacity at a rate of 10C, when compared with a similar battery having a mesoporous metal oxide metal oxide microsphere that has not been treated, at the same cycle number. The battery has a capacity of at least 250 mAh/g (at a rate of C/10), a capacity of at least 200 mAh/g (at a rate of 1 C), or a capacity of at least 127 mAh/g (at a rate of 10 C). The battery has an ability to charge 0-50% of the full range capacity in 6 minutes, or an ability to charge 0-33% of the full range capacity in 1 minute. The battery has a functional discharge capacity of at least 90% of the initial discharge capacity after 100 cycles.    TECHNOLOGY FOCUS - INORGANIC CHEMISTRY - Preferred Composition: The composition is annealed in a reducing atmosphere. The composition is doped with 2-5 mole% of an aliovalent element consisting of alkali metals, alkaline earth metals, transition metals, lanthanides, actinides, post-transition metals, metalloids, and/or non-metals, such as chromium, nitrogen (both preferred), manganese, cobalt, iron, copper, and/or zinc. The composition is coated with a coating composition consisting of nitrides, oxides, carbides, halides, borides and/or phosphides. The composition has at least a 250% higher conductivity when compared with a similar non-treated mesoporous microsphere metal oxide microsphere composition at similar temperature and pressure. Preferred Components: The reducing atmosphere includes hydrogen, argon, nitrogen and/or carbon dioxide. The metal oxide is a transition metal oxide consisting of titanium oxides, vanadium oxides, chromium oxides, manganese oxides, iron oxides, cobalt oxides, nickel oxides, copper oxides, zinc oxides, niobium oxides, tantalum oxides, molybdenum oxides, tungsten oxides, ruthenium oxides, palladium oxides, cadmium oxides, zirconium oxides, and/or hafnium oxides. The metal oxide comprises at least one polymorph of titanium dioxide having at least 50 wt.% of a titanium dioxide anatase polymorph or at least 50 wt.% of a titanium dioxide-B polymorph.