An Amorphous Anode for Proton Battery

Developing advanced electrode materials is crucial for improving the electrochemical performances of proton batteries. Currently, the anodes are primarily crystalline materials which suffer from inferior cyclic stability and high electrode potential. Herein, we propose amorphous electrode materials for proton batteries by using a general ion-exchange protocol to introduce multivalent metal cations for activating the host material. Taking Al3+ as an example, theoretical and experimental analysis demonstrates electrostatic interaction between metal cations and lattice oxygen, which is the primary barrier for direct introduction of the multivalent cations, is effectively weakened through ion exchange between Al3+ and pre-intercalated K+. The as-prepared Al-MoOx anode therefore delivered a remarkable capacity and outstanding cycling stability that outperforms most of the state-of-the-art counterparts. The assembled full cell also achieved a high voltage of 1.37 V. This work opens up new opportunities for developing high-performance electrodes of proton batteries by introducing amorphous materials.