The composition of nickel cobalt sulfide has great influence on its electrochemical performance. Herein, the nickel cobalt sulfide with different composition and mixed phase were synthesized by one-step solvothermal method through changing the molar ratio of Ni to Co in the reaction system. The electrochemical measurements showed that the nickel cobalt sulfide with a theoretical molar ratio of Ni/Co to be 1.5:1.5 (NCS-2) demonstrates the superior pseudocapacitive performance with a high specific capacitance (6.47 F cm(-2) at 10 mA cm(-2)) and a favorable Coulombic efficiency (similar to 99%). Whereas, when applied as the catalyst for hydrogen evolution reaction in 1 M KOH aqueous electrolyte, the nickel cobalt sulfide with a theoretical molar ratio of Ni/Co is 1:2 (NCS-1) displays better catalytic activity, and it requires a relatively lower overpotential of 282 mV to deliver the current density of 10 mA cm(-2). (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.