Study of the pH effect on the properties of the hydrothermally grown V2O5

•Low temperature and free of templates grown electroactive V2O5 coatings•Electrochemical properties are dependent on the pH.•Continuous and adhesive coatings with high crystalline quality

Vanadium pentoxide coatings were prepared by hydrothermal process at a temperature as low as 95 °C. It was demonstrated that the structure and morphology of the coatings depend on the pH solution employed during growth. Only for pH 3.5, adhesive coating growth was observed, with a substantial enhancement in the electrochemical performance in terms of charge density magnitude. The amount of lithium charge interchanged between the vanadium pentoxide and the electrolyte reached 220 mC cm− 2. This is a value among the best reported for low temperature growth and free of templates pentoxide with a prolonged stability up to 250 continuous charge intercalation/deintercalation scans.