Abstract Nickel oxides because of their excellent electrochemical performance have been considered attractive materials for electrochemical energy storage. However, their application as active material for redox supercapacitor electrodes has been limited by poor electrical conductivity. In order to improve this property, herein we synthesized a nanonet of Ni Zn-mixed oxide, by facile hydrothermal route, directly on the substrate. The Zn-modified oxide material showed good electrochemical performance, displaying specific capacitance of 770 F g −1 at 1 A g −1 and almost 120% capacitance retention after 2000 cycles of charge discharge at 2 A g −1 in 2 M KOH. Electrochemical impedance results revealed that the Ni 0.7 Zn 0.3 O mixed oxide displayed increased conductivity compared to the single NiO material.