Information, energy, and materials are the three pillars of the development of modern human society, among which information technology is the main driving force for development in recent decades. The collection and exchange of different information depends on sensors with different functions, which makes sensors play a vital role in many fields [
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2,
3,
4,
5]. In the fields of health care, medical treatment, sports, human–machine interaction, and so on, sensors are required to obtain various signals from the human body. Obtaining information from the skin—the largest organ of human body in direct contact with the outside world—has always been a vital means in these fields. Skin sensors, as the kinds of devices that can be attached to human skin and collect signals from skin or detect external stimulation from around the environment, can well meet the above needs [
6,
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8,
9,
10,
11]. Under the current technological background, a majority of sensors need to be driven by external power sources and cannot work independently and sustainably, which has become one of the main factors restricting the development of skin sensors. One possible solution to address this challenge is to combine skin sensors with energy harvesting and storage components, which provides a feasible scheme for the sustainable operation of skin sensors [
12,
13,
14,
15]. Another way to effectively address such a challenge is to develop self-powered skin sensors. Physical movements, the heat emission of the human body, and human secretions are all sources of energy that can be converted into electrical outputs by energy harvesters, and the wave forms of their electrical signals reflect information of such energy sources [
16,
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20,
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22,
23]. Several technologies can convert these energy sources into electricity, including the piezoelectric effect, the triboelectric effect, the thermoelectric effect, and the spontaneous redox reaction [
24,
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28,
29,
30,
31]. Based on these principles, various energy harvesters with multiple functions have been developed. Among them, piezoelectric nanogenerators (PENGs) and triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) are mechanical energy harvesters that were first proposed in 2006 and 2012, respectively [
32,
33]. They can harvest mechanical energy from the human body and also work as self-powered skin sensors to detect body motion, touch/pressure, and acoustic sound [
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37,
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43,
44]. In addition, non-motion-based energy harvesters, such as thermoelectric nanogenerators and biofuel cells, can serve as self-powered temperature and sweat skin sensors, respectively [
45,
46,
47,
48]. The use of new materials enables these devices to have good transparency, portability, flexibility, light weight, comfortability, and biocompatibility. All these advantages above have made self-powered skin sensors receive extensive attention in recent years, and they are undergoing fast development. Hence there is a great need to comprehensively review the recent progress of self-powered skin sensors.
In this review, the recent advances of self-powered skin sensors will be comprehensively reviewed. The self-powered skin sensors will be classified according to the different types of monitoring signals, with a focus on the working mechanism, device structure, and the sensing principle.
Section 2,
Section 3 and
Section 4 will review the self-powered skin sensors for detecting body motion, touch/pressure, and acoustic sound, respectively, which are all related to motion and based on PENGs and TENGs.
Section 5 will review other types of self-powered skin sensors, including those used for sensing of body temperature and sweat. The working principle, device structure, device performance, and advantages and disadvantages of different types of self-powered skin sensors will be summarized. Finally, the challenges faced by self-powered skin sensors and the future prospects will be discussed.