Herein for the first time we report a novel approach to prepare well-controlled iron phosphide nanorods (FeP NRs) via low-temperature phosphidation of Fe salt with a porous anodic aluminum oxide (AAO) template. The as prepared FeP NRs exhibit high catalytic activity toward hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) in acidic solutions, showing an onset potential of similar to 45 mV, a Tafel slope of 55 mV/dec and nearly 100% Faradaic yield (FY) with good stability. Additionally, the catalyst can deliver current density of 2 and 10 mA/cm(2) for HER with low overpotentials of 67 and 120 my, respectively. Up to date the FeP NRs should be the inexpensive electrocatalyst while offering high activity toward HER, thus holding a great promise for practical applications for water electrolysis in large scale production. Copyright (C) 2015, Hydrogen Energy Publications, LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.