A facile and efficient hydrothermal approach has been developed to synthesize three dimensional hybrid of manganese dioxide (MnO2) and carbon nanocoils (CNCs) as a kind of electrode materials for supercapacitors. This hybrid is prepared by anchoring uniformly porous MnO2 nanowiskers over the surface of CNCs. The electrochemical properties of CNC-MnO2 electrode have been measured by a three electrode configuration, which exhibits high specific capacitance with values up to 387 F/g at a scan rate of 10 mV/s and good cycling stability. These results suggest that the CNC-MnO2 hybrid is comparable or superior to other carbon-based materials coated with MnO2 nanowiskers. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.