Converting furfural residue wastes to carbon materials for high performance supercapacitor

Sustainable development based on the value-added utilization of furfural residues (FRs) is an effective way to achieve a profitable circular economy. This comprehensive work highlights the potential of FRs as precursor to prepare porous carbons for high performance supercapacitors (SCs). To improve the electrochemical performance of FR-based carbon materials, a facile route based on methanol pretreatment coupled with pre-carbonization and followed KOH activation is proposed. More defects could be obtained after methanol treatment, which is incline to optimize textural structure. The activated methanol treated FR-based carbon materials (AFRMs) possess high specific surface area (1753.5 m(2) g(-1)), large pore volume (0.85 cm(3) g(-1)), interconnected micro/mesoporous structure, which endow the AFRMs with good electrochemical performance in half-cell (326.1 F g(-1) at 0.1 A g(-1), 189.4 F g(-1) at 50 A g(-1) in 6 mol L-1 KOH). The constructed symmetric SCs based on KOH, KOH-K3Fe(CN) 6 and KOH-KI electrolyte deliver energy density up to 8.9, 9.9 and 10.6 Wh kg(-1) with a capacitance retention of over 86% after 10,000 cycles. Furthermore, the self-discharge can be restrained by the addition of K3Fe(CN)(6) and KI in KOH electrolyte. This study provides an effective approach for high-valued utilization of FR waste. (c) 2021 Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Publishing services by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of KeAi Communications Co., Ltd.

Automated summary

This study highlights the potential of furfural residues (FRs) as a precursor to prepare porous carbons for high performance supercapacitors. The FR-based carbon materials exhibit good electrochemical performance due to the optimized textural structure achieved through methanol pretreatment and KOH activation. The constructed symmetric supercapacitors based on different electrolytes deliver high energy density and capacitance retention. Overall, this research provides an effective approach for the value-added utilization of FR waste.