Hitherto, WP has been used as hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) catalyst. However, its activity and complexity of nanostructure synthesis greatly limit applications in hydrogen production. Therefore, in this work, the coral-like WP nanorod arrays propagated on W foils (C-WP/W) are synthesized through an in situ oxidation and phosphorization route. The obtained 3D C-WP/W catalysis system can directly work as hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) electrode, and exhibits excellent activity and stability in either acid or alkaline media. It only requires a small overpotential of 109 and 133 mV at 10 mA/cm(2), and 189 and 206 mV at 100 mA/cm(2) in 0.5 M H2SO4 and 1.0 M KOH, respectively, which is the best HER catalyst ever reported among pure tungsten phosphide materials. This study paves the way for integrations of 3D HER electrodes with low-cost, high performance and for efficient applications under complicated conditions. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.