MXene is widely used as electrode materials in lithium-ion batteries due to its unique morphology, which realizes rapid ion diffusion and provides more ion insertion channels, whereas transition metal phosphides show a promising lithium storage performance in the field of energy storage due to their high theoretical capacity. In the present paper, cobalt phosphide nanoparticles (NPs) were self-grown on Ti3C2 sheets via a low-temperature phosphating method, which showed good cycle stability as the anode in lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). After 1000 cycles, the specific capacity was maintained at 650 mAh g−1 with a high coulombic efficiency (98.8%) at 700 mA g−1, which was approximately 4 and 6 times higher than that of pristine CoP–Co2P and pure Ti3C2, respectively. The enhanced electrochemical performance was attributed to the large specific surface (61.2 m2 g−1), which offered sufficient active sites for the electrochemical reaction. Also, the outstanding redox reaction activity of cobalt phosphide effectively improved the electrochemical reaction efficiency during the charge-discharge process. The strategy proposed in this study could be extended to other two dimensional (2D) materials to achieve their full potential. Display omitted •CoP–Co2P are self-grown on Ti3C2 via a low-temperature phosphorization method.•CoP–Co2P were uniformly distributed among interlamination spaces of Ti3C2 sheet.•CoP–Co2P/Ti3C2 shows excellent lithium storage performance and reversibility.•The electrochemical reaction mechanism of CoP–Co2P/Ti3C2 was discussed in detail.•The strategy can be extended to other 2D materials to achieve their potential.