This work demonstrates a simple and unique strategy via a facile sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS)-directed oil-bath technique followed by a post thermal treatment for synthesizing hierarchical porous NiCoO2 nanosheets. The surfactant SDS plays a crucial role in the generation of Ni/ Co hydroxide ultrathin microsheets (NC-HS). After heat-treatment, the ultrathin microsheets are transformed into splitted Ni/ Co porous oxide (NC-PO) nanosheets. Even thoughNC-HS microstructures exhibit higher initial specific capacitance (1125 F g(-1) at 1 A g(-1)) than NC-PO nanosheets (830 F g(-1) at 1 A g(-1)), NC-PO nanosheets exhibit excellent rate performance (73.49% capacity retention from 1 to 40 A g(-1)) and cycling stability (25% loss of the maximum value and 113% retention of the initial value after 2000 cycles), which reveals the electrochemical performance is closely associated with the morphology as well as the crystal structure of electroactive nanomaterials. The unique nanostructures and well- defined nanocrystal characteristic of the porous NiCoO2 nanosheets make main contributions to the excellent electrochemical performance as a supercapacitor anode electrode material. (C) 2017 The Electrochemical Society. All rights reserved.