Two-dimensional electrocatalysts with high-density active sites together with a good charge transfer to the conductive substrates can improve their hydrogen evolution reaction performances. Typically, a good contact between catalyst and electrode to enhance charge transfer can be achieved by way of direct growth. However, a controllable growth of vertically aligned two-dimensional ReSe2 directly on conductive substrates as working electrodes is not reported. In this work, for the first time, vertically aligned ReSe2 nanosheets directly on conductive substrates (carbon cloth and glass carbon) are realized though a controllable chemical vapor deposition method. Compare to the way of transferring two-dimension ReSe2, the electrode with optimized growth of two-dimensional ReSe2 exhibits superior hydrogen evolution reaction performances. (C) 2019 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.