The triboelectric effect is one of the most trending effects in energy harvesting technologies, which use one of the most common effects in daily life. Herein, an impervious silicone elastomer-based triboelectric nanogenerator (SE-TENG) is reported with a micro roughness-created silicone elastomer film and Ni foam as triboelectric layers with opposite surface charges. The surface roughness modification process was performed via a cost-effective soft lithography technique using sandpaper. The replicated film was then used as the negative triboelectric layer and porous Ni foam was used as the positive triboelectric layer. The device exhibited the advantage of high stability due to the porous nature of the Ni foam, which could not damage the roughness pattern of the elastomer film. The device generated a maximum electrical output of ∼370 V/6.1 μA with a maximum area power density of ∼17 mW m⁻² at a load resistance of 1 GΩ. Furthermore, the SE-TENG device was packed using polyethylene to protect it from humidity and made to be a water-resistant SE-TENG (WR-SE-TENG). The device was stable under different percentages of relative humidity, showing a uniform electrical output in the range of 10% RH to 99% RH. This proves that the packing is highly resistant against moisture and humidity. The device was also used for demonstrating its capability in powering small electronic components such as charging commercial capacitors, glowing LEDs and powering wrist watches. Further, the WR-SE-TENG device was used to scavenge bio-mechanical energy from human motions and also used for a real-time application of zero power consuming/self-powered pressure sensors. As an active sensor, the device showed linear sensing behavior and a sensitivity of 0.492 μA kPa⁻¹.

A flexible, lightweight, and highly efficient poly(vinylidene fluoride)-activated carbon (C-PVDF-AC) composite film in 30 V/V% concentration was derived using the sonication process, followed by heat treatment, and studied for unconventional energy conversion and active sensing purposes (without battery energy). The use of the sonication process originates the high electroactive β-phase of PVDF without the requirement for an additional electrical poling process. The substitution of AC fillers in PVDF stabilized and improved the electroactive β-phase of PVDF and also acted as electrical conduction paths between –CH₂–/–CF₂– electric dipoles of PVDF. The frequency-dependent dielectric constant and electrical conductivity of the sonication-process-derived PVDF and composite films showed a better response, which was due to the improvement in the electric dipole–dipole interactions and interfacial interactions between the AC fillers and PVDF molecular chains. An unpoled PVDF nanogenerator (P-NG) and composite nanogenerator (C-NG) generated high peak-to-peak V_OC and I_SC values of 37.77 V and 299 nA and 37.87 V and 0.831 μA, respectively, under 6.6 kPa pressure. No electrical poling effect was observed in P-NG output, whereas C-NG (30 V/V%)'s output showed a significant voltage increment (≈30%) and current increment (≈96%). The obtained instantaneous power density ≈63.07 mW m⁻² of C-NG was sufficient to drive low-power electronic devices such as LEDs and displays. It was experimentally verified that the C-NG device itself can act as a self-powered acceleration sensor (SAS) and the output voltage showed a linear behavior between the input accelerations from 0.5 to 5 m s⁻² and the shaft load.