A periodic pillared-layer nickel hydroxide/nickel hybrid electrode was fabricated by electroforming nickel on an interconnected anodic alumina photonic crystal template followed by cyclic voltammetry. The XRD results confirmed the alpha-Ni(OH)(2) grown in-situ on the nanoporous nickel. The periodic pillar-layered hybrid electrodes showed the ultrahigh volumetric capacitance of 1387 F cm(-3) and a large areal capacitance of 2.51 F cm(-2) calculated from the discharge curves (at discharge current densities of 5 mA cm(-2)) and it also showed good cycling stability (no loss of capacitance after 1000 cycles at a scan rate of 10 mV s(-1)). The enhanced capacity performance for the layered hybrid electrode is mainly attributable to the optimized nanostructure of the current collector. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.