The phosphorized radial microspheres of Ni-Co-O on a porous Ti plate (Ni-Co-O/Ti) were fabricated for the electrocatalysis of hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). They are characterized by SEM, TEM, XRD, XPS and BET. The Ni-Co-P/Ti exhibited the low onset potential of -100 mV, achieving the current densities of 10 and 50 mA/cm(2) at the overpotentials of 20 and 80 mV, respectively. The Tafel slope is approximately 43 mV/dec, which is close to that of commercial Pt catalyst and lower than many previous reports. On the other hand, the Ni-Co-O/Ti exhibited high electrocatalytic oxidation of glucose with a relatively low onset potential at 0.29 V, where glucose was introduced to decrease the cell potential of water splitting. (c) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.