(Correspondent: Hui Yuan and Binzheng Zhao) Electronic skin mimics human skin's perception of external stimuli, such as stress, temperature and humidity, and has potential in prosthetics, robotics, wearable devices, medical devices and other fields. Early electronic skin has low resolution, high energy consumption and low sensitivity, which cannot meet the demand of the modern applications. Piezoelectric nanogenerators and piezoelectric electronics have great potential in mechanical power generation and electronic transmission characteristics control. Electronic skin, which is based on piezoelectric effect and piezoelectric electronics, has received much attention owing to its low energy consumption, high sensitivity and fast response.

Recently,Nano Energy (Impact Factor is 13.1),well-known top international journal, reportedFlexible Electronic Skins Based on Piezoelectric Nanogenerators and Piezotronics.Professor Yang Rusen and Professor Qin Yong of School of Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology of Xidian University are the corresponding authors, Doctoral student Yuanhui is the lead author, co-authored by Professor Lei Tianmin.

This review focused on inorganic piezoelectric materials, piezoelectric polymers and natural piezoelectric materials, introduced the concepts of piezoelectric effect and piezoelectric electronics, and explored the role of the piezotronic effect in application electronic skin. The review also summerized the applications of piezoelectric nanogenerators and piezoelectric electronics in piezoelectric sensors, multifunctional sensors and sensor arrays, and described the current research, difficulties and challenges confronted by the research. There are many problems including how to improve the sensitivity, resolution and response speed of electronic skin, how to realize the multi-function of electronic skin, and how to reduce the cost of electronic skin production. To solve those problems, the author put forward effective solutions, pointed out the development trend of electronic skin with high perception which may become superior to human skin.

Link to the paper:

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2211285519300928