Flexible electronic skins based on piezoelectric nanogenerators and piezotronics

Abstract

Electronic skins have received substantial attention in recent years and found great potential in prosthetics, robots, wearable devices, medical equipment, and many other areas. The development of the emerging field of nanogenerators and piezotronics unveiled new types of flexible electronic skins. These devices demonstrated high sensitivity, rapid response, and self-power capability. This review gives the research progress of electronic skins based on principles found in nanogenerators and piezotronics. The role of the piezoelectric effect and the piezotronic effect in sensors is explored, materials used in devices are discussed, and different sensors for electronic skins are provided in this review. The review concludes with an outlook of electronic skins enabled by nanogenerators and piezotronics.