This study aims to develop an effective and inexpensive oxygen evolution reaction (OER) electrocatalysts for efficient water splitting. Cu2O nanoparticles coated with carbon (Cu2O@C) were successfully synthe-sized by photocatalytic method. As a novel non-noble-metal OER catalyst, the Cu2O@C exhibited excellent OER efficiency with an onset overpotential of 250 mV and a Tafel slope of 63 mV decade(-1). This catalyst maintained its catalytic activity for at least 100 h and required only an overpotential of 330 mV to attain a current density 10 mA cm(GEO)(-2). During OER catalysis, the carbon shell served as a conducting media to quicken the charge transfer and as a protective layer to enhance the phase stability and prevent the aggregation of Cu2O nanoparticles. (C) 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.