The shock absorption functionality of nanomaterials based shoes during body motion

The violent movement of human body will bring great impact to feet; therefore the shock absorption function of sports shoes is very important. The main factors affecting the shock absorption function is the material and structure of sole. In order to investigate the effect of nanomaterials on the shock absorption function of sports shoes, the impact tests were carried out on the thermoplastic elastomer (TPE) soles which were added or not added with nano-carbon black and the ordinary rubber soles. The impact energy was set as 6 J and 10 J, and the shock absorption performance was determined according to the test results. Thirty volunteers attended comfort tests which were designed to test the comfortability of the three kinds of sports shoes. The results demonstrated that the sport shoes which were added with the nano-carbon black had the best shock absorption performance. The impact peak value and G value of the sports shoes which were added with nano-carbon black were 13.57% and 17.86% lower than the shoes with the ordinary rubber soles when the impact energy was 6 J; the impact peak value and G value of the shoes with the ordinary TPE soles were 1.54% and 10.71% lower. When the impact energy was 10 J, the peak value and G value of the shoes which were added with nano-carbon black were 8.96% and 13.51% lower, while the impact peak value and G value of the shoes which were equipped with the ordinary TPE soles were 4.32% and 8.11% lower. The findings suggested that nanomaterials was effective in enhancing the shock absorption performance of sports shoes and that the shock absorption performance of sports shoes which were produced using nanomaterials was better than that of ordinary sports shoes. Moreover the results demonstrated that the shock absorption effect of sports shoes was limited, excessively large impact might weaken shock absorption effect.