Designing and developing an efficient, economic and stable catalyst for photocatalytic water oxidation is a forefront topic of sustainable energy research. Herein, we rationally designed a CoP/NC (CoP nanoparticles embedded in nitrogen and carbon matrices) nanocube catalysts via a pyrolysis phosphidation strategy derived from Co-Co/PB (Co-Co prussian blue) MOF-based precursor, which was employed as a robust heterogeneous catalyst for photocatalytic water oxidation for the first time. The TEM and SEM tests exhibit that Co-Co/PB contributes to well-defined nanocube architecture features after phosphidation. Furthermore, the photocatalytic performance of CoP/NC nanocube catalyst was examined in photocatalytic water oxidation system using [Ru(bpy)(3)](2+) as photosensitizer and S2O82- as sacrificial electron acceptor. The result shows CoP/NC has a modest high O-2 evolution rate of 901.5 mmol h(-1) g(-1), O-2 yield of 36.1%, TOF of 34.5 x 10(-3) mol(O2) mol(metal)(-1) s(-1), and quantum yield of 61.5%. Noteworthily, an amorphous CoOx layer on CoP/NC surface was observed by HRTEM test after light reaction. The amorphous CoOx layer and CoP form a core-shell structure (CoP@CoOx), which facilitates the electron transport effectively. Additionally, the CoP/NC nanocube catalyst shows good electrocatalytic oxygen evolution performance, which has a higher current density and smaller Tafel slope than CoS2/NC and Co3O4/NC derived from the same precursor of Co-Co/PB with CoP/NC. This strategy of using prussian blue analogue as template to create metal phosphide will provide a platform for exploring highly efficient and stable catalysts for energy conversion reactions. (C) 2019 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.