Here, a novel material consisting of black phosphorus (BP) and nickel-dimethylglyoxime nanorods was successfully prepared via a facile in situ calcination strategy, which possesses efficient catalytic activity for hydrogen production from water splitting. The reason for this phenomenon was explained by a series of characterization technologies such as SEM, TEM, XRD, UV–Vis, XPS and photoelectrochemical. We demonstrated that the fast e− transport channels were provided by the formed hollow structure of C@Ni-D nanorods, the highly exposed active sites on C@Ni-BP nanorods benefiting from the direct in situ growth of BP, the resulted synergetic effects of C@Ni-D-2 nanorods and BP achieved a better performance of photocatalytic hydrogen production from water splitting. The optimal hydrogen generation of C@Ni-BP-2 nanorods could reach up to 600[Formula: see text][Formula: see text]mol within 180[Formula: see text]min and the rate of hydrogen production did not decrease significantly after four repeated reaction cycles. This work may offer new direction in situ growth of novel catalysts for achieving highly efficient hydrogen production.
