The hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), an appealing solution for future energy supply, requires efficient and inexpensive electrocatalysts with abundant active surface sites. Although crystalline MoS2 and WS2 are promising candidates, their activity is dominated by edge sites. Amorphous tungsten sulfide prepared so far lacks the required active sites and its application has thus been hampered. In this work, nickel and cobalt incorporated amorphous tungsten sulfide synthesized by a thermolytic process is demonstrated to enhance the HER efficiency dramatically. The amorphous nickel tungsten sulfide (amorphous NiWS) annealed at 210 degrees C delivers the best HER performance in this system boasting a Tafel slope of 55 mV per decade and current density of 8.6 mA cm(-2) at 250 mV overpotential in a sustained test for 24h. The introduction of Ni or Co into the catalyst and subsequent thermal treatment alters the porous structure and chemical bonding states thereby increasing the density of active sites on the surface. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.