For anyone interested in the science of skating:
AFAICT, synthetic ice surfaces are just linear polyethylene - almost the same thing as kitchen plastic wrap, but with a longer molecule length.
["Synthetic ice" here does not refer to the man-made water ice that most of us skate on in indoor rinks - it means a synthetic non-refrigerated surface people can (sort-of) skate on.]
It is nothing but a long line of carbon atoms, with 2 hydrogens per carbon:
H H H H H
H-C-C-C-C- ... C-H
H H H H H
Technically it is UHMWPE, Ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene, i.e., meaning that there are hundreds of thousands of Carbon atoms in each molecule, instead of 10's of thousands.
The carbon to carbon bonds in polyethylene are very strong, which I guess makes the surface is fairly durable. (UHMWPE has mostly replaced kevlar in bullet proof vests.) See
http://www.pslc.ws/macrog/pe.htmThis site claims that "While not an exact substitute to skating on real ice, today’s synthetic ice is as close you can get to a real ice skating experience." Obviously they are wrong - as close as you can get to skating on real ice
IS skating on real ice.
But it is interesting to see that synthetic ice can be so simple.