The low-cost and low-toxic copper-cobalt oxide, CuCo2O4 have attracted a great deal of research interest owing to their wide range of applications such as oxygen evolution reaction, oxygen reduction reaction, hydrogen evolution reaction, alcohols oxidation, H2O2 decomposition, urea oxidation, and energy storage. Their controllable composition, electronic structure, valence states or redox characteristics, morphology, and high catalytic property have made them suitable as universal catalysts. However, their low intrinsic electrical conductivity still overshadows their practical application to some degree. In addition, The conventional preparation procedures of copper-cobalt oxide result in relatively low catalytic activity or large OER overpotential for catalytic reactions. In the present report, we have grown a series of surface functionalized Cu x Co3 - x O4 nanostructures directly on a charge-collecting substrate (e.g., Ni Foam) using a straightforward electrochemical deposition process and investigated the effects of its surface functionalization, morphology, content of oxygen vacancies, electrochemically active surface area (ECSA), and electrical conductivity on the performance of water splitting.