One-step synthesis of amorphous NiCoP nanoparticles by electrodeposition as highly efficient electrocatalyst for hydrogen evolution reaction in alkaline solution

•NiCoP/CC with high catalytic performance was successfully synthesized via a one-step method.•The electrodeposition and phosphating reactions were carried out simultaneously.•Amorphous phosphates were constructed to obtain more active sites for exposure.•The synergistic effect between Ni and Co bimetals leads to high catalytic activity. Exploring a simple, low-cost preparation method to synthesize excellent catalyst for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) in alkaline solution is highly meaningful for large-scale electrolysis of water for hydrogen production. Herein, a one-step electrodeposition method with simultaneous electrodeposition and phosphation was proposed to synthesize the three-dimensional NiCoP/carbon cloth (NiCoP/CC) nanoparticles at room temperature on the conductive carbon cloth (CC). The results showed that the NiCoP nanoparticles covered by nanowires had an amorphous structure. The NiCoP/CC electrode exhibited a good catalytic activity in 1.0 M KOH solution. It required only 74, 101, 149 mV overpotential for HER in basic solution to obtain current densities of − 10, − 20, − 50 mA cm−2, respectively, with a corresponding Tafel slope of 89.5 mV dec−1. Furthermore, after 24 h constant voltage test, the current density of NiCoP/CC only showed 2% decay, indicating a good stability. The obtained excellent catalytic activity can be attributed to the amorphous structure, the synergetic effect of Ni and Co, the charge transfer among Ni/Co and P, and nanoparticles in situ grown on carbon cloth. The simple one-step electrodeposition method shows a very promising potential for the preparation of bimetallic phosphides.