The free standing aluminum nanorods were grown on electrode and evaluated electrochemically as the anodes in the half-cell of Li-ion battery. The average diameter and length of the nanorods are 80nm and 200nm, respectively. The aligned nanorods demonstrated high capacity of 1243mAhg−1 at rate of 0.5C. A gradual decrease of the initial capacity was observed. The characterization of the anodes shows that the changes of the crystalline structure and morphology during cycling may be responsible for the capacity decay. The appropriate selection of the substrate can overcome the problems and lead the sustainable high capacity.