Fabrication of N-Doped Porous Carbon with Micro/Mesoporous Structure from Furfural Residue for Supercapacitors

N-doping is a very useful method to improve the electrochemical performance of porous carbon (PC) materials. In this study, the potential of furfural residue (FR), a solid waste in furfural production, as a precursor to producing PC materials for supercapacitors was highlighted. To obtain an N-doped PC with a high specific surface area (SSA) and hierarchical porous structure, the urea-KOH synergistic activation method was proposed. The obtained FRPCK-Urea showed a high SSA of 1850 m(2) g(−1), large pore volume of 0.9973 cm(3) g(−1), and interconnected micro/mesoporous structure. Besides, urea can also serve as a nitrogen source, resulting in a high N content of 5.31% in FRPCK-Urea. These properties endow FRPCK-Urea with an excellent capacitance of 222.7 F g(−1) at 0.5 A g(−1) in 6 mol L(−1) KOH aqueous electrolyte in a three-electrode system. The prepared FRPCK-Urea possessed a well capacitance retention at current densities from 0.5 to 20 A g(−1) (81.90%) and cycle durability (96.43% after 5000 cycles), leading to FRPCK-Urea to be a potential electrode material for supercapacitors. Therefore, this work develops an effective way for the high-valued utilization of FR.