We herein report a kind of nickel-doped
ultrathin δ-MnO<sub>2</sub> nanosheets prepared using a facile
chemical bath deposition method. The obtained δ-MnO<sub>2</sub> materials have 2D ultrathin nanosheet structures with a few atomic
layers. Electrochemical measurements indicate that an appropriate
amount of nickel doping can remarkably improve the specific capacitance
of the δ-MnO<sub>2</sub> and that 1.0 mol % nickel-doped δ-MnO<sub>2</sub> nanosheets display the best specific capacitance of 337.9
F g<sup>–1</sup> at 1 A g<sup>–1</sup>. The specific
capacitance can maintain at 158 F g<sup>–1</sup> even as the
current density increases to 20 A g<sup>–1</sup>, demonstrating
that the electrode material possesses good rate performance. In addition,
the discharge capacity fading from 160.9 to 158.8 F g<sup>–1</sup> is slight after 4000 cycles, and the corresponding capacitance retention
is as high as 98.6%. The good rate capacity and stability of the δ-MnO<sub>2</sub> nanosheets can be attributed to the ultrathin structure of
a few atomic layers which provides large surface areas and lots of
reactive active sites. Moreover, the appropriate amount of nickel
ion doping at atomic level improves the conductivity of the δ-MnO<sub>2</sub> material