To promote hydrogen production through water splitting, novel porous 3D Al doped CoP3 nanowire arrays on carbon fiber paper are successfully fabricated as an effective self-supported electrode for hydrogen evolution reaction. The results indicate that the electrocatalytic performance of CoP3 can be dramatically enhanced via Al doping. It only needs an overpotential of only 40 mV to achieve the current density of 10 mA cm(-2) with a small Tafel slop of 43 mV dec(-1) for the Al (10%)-CoP3 nanowire arrays. Moreover, the Al (10%)-CoP3 NAs/CFP exhibit superior HER efficiency to Pt/C film at high overpotentials due to prompt release of hydrogen bubbles on the special nanowire arrays surfaces. This study demonstrates an avenue for further improving the electrocatalytic activity via tuning the electronic structures and adjusting the surface morphologies through heteroatoms doping. (C) 2019 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.