A chemical co-precipitation method was attempted to synthesize nickel hydroxide/carbon composite material for high-power Ni/MH batteries. The XRD analysis showed that there were a large amount of defects among the crystal lattice of the Ni(OH)2/C composite, and the SEM investigation revealed that the as-synthesized spherical particles were composed of hundreds of nanometer crystals with a unique three-dimensional petal shape. Compared with pure Ni(OH)2, the Ni(OH)2/C composite showed improved electrochemical properties such as superior cycling stability, higher discharge capacity and higher mean voltage of discharge under high-rate discharge conditions, the discharge capacity and the mean discharge voltage of the Ni(OH)2/C composite were about 281mAhg−1 and 0.303V (vs. Hg/HgO) at 1C-rate, 273mAhg−1 and 0.296V at 5C-rate, 250mAhg−1 and 0.292V at 10C-rate, respectively. The cyclic voltammetry (CV) tests showed that the Ni(OH)2/C composite exhibited good electrochemical reversibility and the formation of γ-NiOOH during the charge–discharge processes was prevented. The existence of carbon in the Ni(OH)2/C composite contributed great effect on the improvement of high-rate discharge performance.