Moreover, the resulting alkali-BTC networks were used as sacrificial self-templating precursors to porous carbon materials via the pyrolysis process. Interestingly, the surface area and gas adsorption capabilities of the resulting carbon materials were highly dependent on the type of precursor used. Finally, the developed porous carbon materials were investigated in terms of their applicability as supercapacitors and aqueous Zn-ion capacitors, which revealed very promising electrochemical performances. Thus, we offer a rational approach based on structure-properties relationship with respect to the composition and structure of well-defined alkali metal-based coordination polymers and the resulting carbon materials. In particular, the AZIC device manufactured using the carbon material derived from K-based coordination polymer displayed an impressive specific capacitance: 754.7 F g -1 , which is one of the highest values ever reported for this type of devices. The observed differences in electrochemical performance among the developed porous carbon materials could be attributed to the various porosity demonstrated by the gas adsorption study. Overall, we demonstrated an extensive study of alkali metal carboxylate networks, offering valuable insights into this relatively unexplored area of research. Further studies on alkali coordination networks involving different organic linkers are currently underway. Synthesis of porous carbon materials 1C, 2C and 3C. All of the porous carbon materials (1C, 2C and 3C) were prepared using the same procedure, but different starting materials, i.e. 1 • 5H2O, 2 • 3H2O and 3 • 3H2O, for 1C, 2C and 3C, respectively. The starting material (10 g) was placed in the alumina crucible, which was inserted into the tube furnace equipped with N2 supply. Prior to the reaction the tube furnace was flushed with dry N2 for 2h. The pyrolysis reaction was conducted for 5h at 850 °C and the furnace was cooled to room temperature afterwards. The products were removed from the furnace and washed with deionized water (caution: The crude pyrolysis products might spontaneously ignite upon exposure to fresh air. This is most likely initiated by the reaction of metal oxides with CO2). Next the products were washed with 5% aqueous H2SO4 in order to remove all of the inorganic residues. Afterwards the products were washed several times with deionized water until the pH of the liquid was neutral. Finally the products were washed with MeOH twice and dried at 80 °C for 24 h. Depending on the starting material used this procedure yields 1,04 g of 1C, 0.98 g of 2C or 0,93 g of 3C.