Cross-linked carbon nanofiber (CLCNF) was successfully prepared by directly carbonizing electrospun polyacrylonitrile (PAN) nanofiber. Comparing to non-cross-linked carbon nanofiber (NCLCNF) obtained via carbonizing of pre-oxidation PAN nanofiber, CLCNF shows better conductivity owing to its crosslinked structure. Then CLCNF was used as scaffold to support polyaniline (PANi) nanorods for supercapacitor electrode material. The hierarchical CLCNF/PANi composite displays a capacity of 206C g(-1) at 0.5 A g(-1) with excellent rate capability (remains 49% even at 800 A g(-1)), which is much higher than that of NCLCNF/PANi composite (17%). More interestingly, supercapacitor device based on CLCNF/PANi composite achieves 75.3% capacity retention after 10000 charge-discharge cycles at 10 A g(-1), suggesting excellent cycle stability. All these experimental results indicate that this method for fabricating CLCNF is a substantial advancement towards the practical applications of carbon nanofiber in energy conversion and storage field. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.