In this communication, cobalt phosphide nanoparticles film was developed on carbon cloth (CoP NPs/CC) through low-temperature phosphidation of its corresponding Co NPs/CC precursor. When directly used as a cathode for electrochemical hydrogen evolution in strongly acidic solutions, the CoP NPs/CC electrode exhibits high performance with a low onset overpotential of 33 mV, a Tafel slope of 70 mV dec(-1) and a Faradaic efficiency of nearly 100%. This catalyst maintain its catalytic activity for at least 30 h and only needs overpotentials of 48 and 190 mV to attain current densities of 10 and 100 mA cm(-2), respectively. Copyright (c) 2014, Hydrogen Energy Publications, LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.