To improve the electrochemical performance of traditional poly(vinylidene fluoride-co-hexafluoropropylene) [P(VdF-HFP)] based gel polymer electrolyte (GPE), maleic anhydride-grated-polyvinylidene fluoride (MA-PVdF) was introduced to form polypropylene (PP) supported MA-PVdF/P(VdFHFP) based GPE. Nano-Al2O3 was also incorporated into MA-PVdF/P(VdF-HFP) blend in order to further enhance the comprehensive performance of GPE. The corresponding membranes and GPEs were characterized by porosity, electrolyte uptake, scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy, mechanical test, thermogravimetric analyzer, charge/discharge test and nail penetrates experiment. It is found that the performances of GPEs are significantly improved when the mass ratio of MA-PVdF to P(VdF-HFP) is 1:6. Doping 10 wt% nano-Al2O3 further influences the characterization of selected membranes and GPE, in which the electrolyte uptake is enhanced from 128 to 192%, the ionic conductivity of corresponding GPE is improved from 2.39 x 10(-3) S cm(-1) to 3.84 x 10(-3) S cm(-1), the mechanical strength increases from 6.34 to 6.98 N, the thermal decomposition temperature from 260 degrees C to 420 degrees C. Thus, the full battery LiCoO2 broken vertical bar GPE broken vertical bar Artiflcial graphite exhibits good rate and cycling performances. After 100 cycles, the discharge capacity of the cell retains 97.2% of original one for the Al2O3 doped GPE, while 95.6% for the GPE without nano-Al2O3 and 93.2% for P(VdF-HFP) based GPE. Additionally, the safety performance of full charged battery is enhanced, in which the highest temperature is rapidly declined from 250 degrees C for the polypropylene (PP) membrane to 104 degrees C for PP supported MA-PVdF/P(VdF-HFP)/Al2O3 membrane in the nail penetrates experiment. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.