A gelatin-based electrolyte has been developed and characterized by impedance spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, UV-vis-NIR spectroscopy and atomic force microscopy (AFM). The heat treatment temperature was found the key factor affecting its ionic conductivity that increases from 1.5 x 10(-5) S/cm to 4.9 x 10(-4) S/cm by heating from room temperature up to 80 degrees C. The temperature dependence of the ionic conductivity exhibits an Arrhenius behavior. EC-devices with the configuration K-glass/Nb2O5:Mo EC-layer/gelatin-based electrolyte/(CeO2)(x)(TiO2)(1-x) ion-storage (IS) layer/K-glass, have been assembled and characterized. They show a good long time cyclic stability, but the change of the optical density measured at 550 nm after 25 000 cycles was only 0.13. (c) 2007 Published by Elsevier Ltd.