Gel polymer electrolyte (GPE) films comprising of poly(vinylidenefluoride), propylene carbonate, ethylene carbonate and zinc trifluoromethane sulfonate are prepared and characterized. The composition of GPE is optimized to contain minimum liquid components with a maximum specific conductivity of 3.94 x 10(-3) S cm(-1) at (25 +/- 1) degreesC. A detailed investigation on the properties such as ionic conductivity, transport number, electrochemical stability window, reversibility of Zn/Zn2+ couple and Zn/gel electrolyte interfacial stability have been carried out. The ionic conductivity follows a VTF behaviour with an activation energy of about 0.0014 eV Cationic transport number varies from 0.51 at 25 degreesC to 0.18 at 70 degreesC. Several cells have been assembled with GPE as the electrolyte, zinc as the anode, gamma-MnO2 as the cathode and their charge-discharge behaviour followed. Capacity values of 105, 82, 64 and 3 7 mAh/g of MnO2 have been achieved at 10, 50, 100 and 200 muA/cm(2) discharge current densities, respectively. The discharge capacity values are almost constant for about 55 cycles for all values of current densities. Cyclic voltammetric study of MnO2 electrode in Zn/GPE/MnO2 cell clearly shows intercalation/deintercalation of Zn2+ (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.