Cribriform sheet-like carbon-coated ZnO are prepared using pyrrole as the carbon source. It is found that a sheet-like precursor will form when polymerizing pyrrole in the presence of ZnO particles. After the carbonization of precursor, cribriform sheet-like carbon-coated ZnO can be obtained. Morphology and structure analysis of as-prepared carbon-coated ZnO is conducted by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The carbon overlayer not only present a barrier layer on the surface of the ZnO particles, which keeps relative high discharge capacity by inhibiting the active materials in electrode from dissolving into electrolyte, but also modify the surface status of ZnO particles so as to obtain more uniform current distribution and improved conductivity. As a result, when evaluated as an anode material for Zn/Ni cell, carbon-coated ZnO exhibit a more stable cycle performance than bare ZnO electrode. (C) 2015 Elsevier BM. All rights reserved.