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The development of advanced materials for energy storage and conversion has been receiving wide attention to meet the rising demand for clean energy technologies. In particular, a large effort is being devoted towards the improvement of specific properties of electrochemical devices such as rechargeable lithium-based batteries, in view of their possible application in the automotive field. Among the storage devices, rechargeable lithium-based polymer batteries, which are generally formed by a cathode and an anode capable of reversibly intercalating/de-intercalating Li+-ions and a polymer electrolyte separator, represent an excellent choice for electrochemical power sources and gained the reputation as future of energy storage. They represent the ultimate in terms of desirable properties of Li-ion batteries because they can offer an all-solid-state construction, a wide variety of shapes and sizes, light-weight, low cost of fabrication and a higher energy density. No corrosive or explosive liquid can leak out and internal short-circuit are less likely, hence greater safety is guaranteed. Two classes of materials have been primarily used as polymer electrolyte: solvent-free membranes, formed by blending a thermoplastic polymer with the lithium salt and gel membranes formed by thermoplastic polymers trapping the liquid solution of the electrolyte. Typically, the solvent-free membrane is based on poly(ethylene oxide) and still suffer from poor conductivity at ambient temperature. The gel membrane is usually made of poly(vinylidene fluoride), its preparation requires a long mixing and drying time to form a free-standing film and, once obtained, can dissolve in the same swelling solvent, especially if the temperature increases. Thermoset membranes prepared by UV curing could be an interesting alternative to the present products as this process has excellent versatility in application. Song and co-workers studied the use of UV curing to prepare chemically and physically cross-linked PEGDA/PVdF blend gelelectrolytes of high ionic conductivity. In line with this tendency, in the recent years our research group carried out a systematic investigation on those materials which appear particularly promising for the development of lithium-based batteries with improved characteristics and performances. In the present paper we report an overview of syntheses, properties and electrochemical performances of a series of polymer electrolyte membranes made from different acrylic / methacrylic formulations with mono-functional methacrylates and also some surface modifications by siloxane diacrylates.
