Mitigating Structural Degradation in Hydrated V₂O₅ for Proton Batteries through Nanoconfinement with a Holey Graphene Matrix

Abstract

Proton-based electrochemistry offers a promising solution to the cost and safety-limited lithium-ion batteries in general and sluggish ion diffusion and poor stability challenges of metal-ion batteries in particular, since it leverages the Grotthuss mechanism for ultrafast transport in aqueous media. Proton insertion accompanied by metal ions has been worked out extensively; however, pure protonation/deprotonation remains underexplored. Here, we report pure protonation/deprotonation in a confined water-containing V₂O₅ wrapped in holey reduced graphene oxide via facile hydrothermal and sonication processes. The as-prepared composite demonstrated stable and efficient electrochemistry by exhibiting excellent capacity (~122 mAh g⁻¹ @ 25 mA g⁻¹) and exceptional stability (over 10 000 cycles at 1 A g⁻¹) with excellent coulombic efficiencies. To our knowledge, this is the first study on pure protonation/deprotonation in V₂O₅, highlighting its potential in highly stable energy storage systems.

Keywords

electrochemistry / electrode / graphene / proton batteries / V₂O₅

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2026 The Author(s). Energy & Environmental Materials published by John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd on behalf of Zhengzhou University.