Highly active and earth-abundant dual functional electrocatalyst have been developed to resolve energy conversion and storage from water splitting. Herein, for the first time, synthesis of morphology-controllable for the electrocatalytic active Ni(OH)(2) nanosheets deposited on the periphery of FeCo2S4 nanorods on the porous nickel foams was designed through two step hydrothermal process. For water splitting, FeCo2S4@Ni(OH)(2)/NF-3h//FeCo2S4@Ni(OH)(2)/NF-3h required cell voltage of 1.52 V to drive 20 mA cm(-2), which is one of the smallest value reported compared with previous literature for electrochemistry water splitting through a large number of literature research. Density functional theory calculations and experimental characterization are done to calculate the surface adsorption energy of water molecules on the catalyst surface and explore the hydrogen evolution mechanism of synergistic catalysis. What is noteworthy is that FeCo2S4@Ni(OH)(2)/NF-3h remain a current intensity of 15 mA cm(-2) for 140 h in 1.0 M KOH solution with a slight increment of the overpotential. (C) 2019 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.