Photovoltaic Self-Powered Gas Sensing: A Review

The self-powered sensing system could harness ambient energy to power the sensor without the need for external electrical energy. Recently, the concept of photovoltaic (PV) self-powered gas sensing has aroused wider attentions due to room-temperature operation, low power consumption, small size and potential applications. The PV self-powered gas sensors integrate the photovoltaic effects and the gas sensing function into a single chip, which could truly achieve the goal of zero power consumption for an independent gas sensing device. As an emerging concept, the PV self-powered gas sensing has been achieved by using different strategies, including integrated gas sensor and solar cell, integrated light filter and solar cell, gas-sensitive heterojunction photovoltaics, and gas-sensitive lateral photovoltaics, respectively. The purpose of this review is to summarize recent advances of PV self-powered gas sensing and also remark on the directions for future research in this topic.