Carbon-coated carbon nanotubes (C@CNT) was designed, synthesized and used as conductive substrate for loading manganese dioxide to prepare MnO2/C@CNT composite. C@CNT with self-sacrificial carbon layer as protection is suitable for loading higher content of MnO2. The morphology and microstructure of the as-prepared MnO2/C@CNT composite with MnO2 loading up to 78 wt% were investigated by SEM and TEM. The electrochemical performance of MnO2/C@CNT was evaluated by cyclic voltammetry (CV) and galvanostatic charge discharge (GCD) method. With the protective carbon layer on the surface of CNTs, MnO2/C@CNT composite presents superior specific capacitance of 227 F/g with MnO2 loading up to 78 wt% at a current density of 0.2 A/g and good cyclic stability with 94% of its maximal specific capacitance maintained after 1000 CV scans. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.