Freestanding, hybrid flexible supercapacitor electrodes were prepared by a simple rapid-mixture polymerization of aniline using coal based carbon nanofibers (CBCNFs) paper as substrate. The as-prepared binder-free electrode materials display excellently electrochemical capacitance, making it attractive for high-performance flexible capacitors. The results of electrochemical tests indicated that when the aniline concentrations was 0.15 M, the obtained ordered needle-like polyaniline (PANI) nanowires on the CBCNFs hybrid electrodes not only exhibit a high specific capacitance of 458 F/g at a current density of 0.5 A/g, but also give excellent retention ration of 87% after 1000 cycles at the current density of 2 A/g. Such excellent performance of CBCNFs/PANI is attributed to its nanostructure and the synergistic effects between the CBCNFs and ordered needle-like polyaniline nanowire arrays. (c) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.