OOAK Table Tennis Forum

I was just curious, have any companies looked into seeding their rubbers with small amounts of graphene? As a doctor of physical chemistry I do realize the way it would change the playability of certain rubbers, but I'm curious more about its legality. It would also allow poorer areas of the world to experience rubbers that may last for years of play allowing TT (rather than, say, hardbat) to infiltrate new playing markets where it has never been played seriously before due to cost.

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User of the one of a kind "Smith" grip: here to revolutionize the game.

I don't believe there are any rules regarding the actual composition of the rubber, the best I can find is in the T4 racket covering leaflet

"Rubber" (Laws 2.4.3.1 and 2.4.3.2) implies any material that can be stretched at room temperature
to twice its original length, and that, after being held in the stretched state for one minute, retracts
within one further minute to less than 1.5 times its original length.

So providing it conforms to that, graphene is a go.

I realise graphene is supposed to be a new wonder material they are adding to everything to improve strength/durability/flexibility and other properties, but I doubt a tt company would want to improve durability and cut their profits

tt rubbers are sort of obscenely expensive given the average lifespan...

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Chasse Patate

My thoughts too Silver, but I guess if it gave them an edge over others that they could make the rubber cost even more obscene they might do it

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S/U 3: Blade: Bty Gergely . No rubbers...thinking of adding Red Dtecs and Black Rasant
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no doubt they would use the price of graphene as an excuse to sell $150 rubbers.

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Chasse Patate

I asked a similar question over at TableTennisDaily about 6 months ago - not just rubber but equipment in general.

There is a line in the movie The Graduate where a side character is giving advice to the young graduate. "One word Plastics" Today that word is graphene!

The most we could find is that some companies are using it in shoes.

And a year later everyone's forgotten about it...

I kinda doubt adding a few percent of a powdered substance (no matter how strong that substance might be itself) to rubber would change it that much. You'd have to add something that actually bonds to the rubber and changes the way the rubber molecules interact with each other to make a difference.

Iskandar

My Dear,
This is the very thing you're talking about. This may last for years, at reasonable price.

Be happy.






https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32791486065.html

Are you talking about mixing graphene in the rubber mixture or forming a web as a layer within the topsheet? If the former, that might reduce the friction potential. In the latter, would it go against certain uniformity in material rules? Also in the latter, it won't aid much in overall durability...

Actually... looking at this post again... I'm not sure what he means when he says "seeding rubbers with small amounts of graphene", but I don't think rubbers that quickly wear out (by our standards) are an impediment for tabletennis being played in very poor parts of the world. Having seen what's available in Chinese book stores - some REAL TRASH cheap bats with topsheets that come off after a week - and having seen people playing with these rackets, AND rackets where the topsheets HAVE come off, etc. rubbers that don't last for months is no impediment at all..

Iskandar

Actually it is the same here, many rackets for recreational use are "stripped" of the topsheet by the players. They apparently find it is easier to play with when the topsheet is missing. Who wants to deal with all that spin after all? So even if it is a more durable racket they would still find a way to "disassemble" the racket. It's one of the reasons better equipment isn't available generally here. People aren't taught to respects things that don't belong to them, at least until they come across someone who can use the spin against them.

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Donic Waldner World Champion 89 FL; Donic BlueStar A2 (Red) Max; DMS Firestorm (Black) 1.8