Dr Mohammad Nazmul Karim, of the National Graphene Institute in Manchester, believes the day when graphene will be used in football could come within the next couple of decades. While the material is already used in the production of tennis rackets and Formula One cars, it is yet to be tested on skin. He predicts graphene-based inks could be printed onto textile materials such as football shirts in the coming years.
"We're still not quite sure about the toxicity of graphene, and people are working to find out whether there are any problems with it or not," he said. "I am hoping something will happen before 20 years, and maybe in the next two or three. The one we are missing is producing high-quality graphene ink in high quantity. Once we get to that point, maybe we'll be able to do big productions. We have printed graphene onto textiles, and it is highly conductive—you could make a device from it.
"You can paint sensors, print a battery and use solar cells to power it. In an ideal garment like a football shirt, you could print a sensor and connect that to a battery and connect it with solar panels. That's an idea we are working on."