Mesopores NiCo2O4 nano-needles directly grown on Ni foam as high-performance electrodes for supercapacitors

•The mesopores NiCo2O4 nano-needle structures are prepared by a facile one-step hydrothermal method.•The existence of a large number of mesopores increases the specific surface area of the electrode.•The mesopores NiCo2O4 nano-needle electrode exhibited a high specific capacitance and excellent cycling stability. In this work, mesopores NiCo2O4 nano-needles which directly grown on nickel foam are fabricated for high-performance supercapacitors by one-step hydrothermal method. The mesopores NiCo2O4 nano-needles/NF electrode exhibits a high specific capacitance of 1410 Fg−1 at 1Ag−1, good cycling stability of 94.7% capacitance retentions at 20Ag−1 after 3000 cycles, and 73.8% of the original capacitance was reached from 1 to 20Ag−1, indicating a remarkable rate performance.