If you’ve paid attention to news about carbon nanotubes (CNTs) you’ve heard this before. “CNTs are the greatest thing since . . .”, “CNTs are about to revolutionize . . .” When CNTs first burst onto the technology scene in 1991 after a paper published in the journal Nature by Sumio Iijima the future looked so bright that materials scientists just had to wear shades. CNTs were expected to transform the electronics industry through the production of transistors that were much smaller, faster and more efficient than anything that could be achieved with silicon chip technology. It hasn’t worked out that way because there were a number of unforeseen problems in producing CNT-based electronics on an …