Highly dispersed metals, metal oxides and their composites on substrates have received considerable interest in catalysis and lithium-ion batteries, because of their superior properties compared with their single-component counterparts. In this review, we introduce the properties of supercritical carbon dioxide (scCO2) expanded ethanol, such as low viscosity, near-zero surface tension and high diffusivity. We discuss the deposition procedure and formation mechanism of carbon-based composites in scCO2-expanded ethanol. This method has been used to fabricate several carbon-based composites, such as metal and metal oxide composites deposited on zero-dimensional colloidal carbon, one-dimensional carbon nanotubes, two-dimensional graphene, and three-dimensional hierarchical porous carbon. These materials and their performance as anodic materials for lithium-ion batteries will also be reviewed.