Who invented the carbon nanotube?
Roger Bacon (physicist)
Invention of the carbon nanotube is credited to Sumio Iijima in 1991, but Figure 8 in Bacon’s paper shows a carbon nanotube derived from a whisker subjected to heavy current that caused the outer layers to explode. Iijima's invention is a seamless tube of diameter <30 nm, as opposed to Bacon's scrolled sheet.
Potential applications of carbon nanotubes
Another way to make carbon nanotube transistors has been to use random networks of them. By doing so one averages all of their electrical differences and one can produce devices in large scale at the wafer level. This approach was first patented by Nanomix Inc. (date of original application June 2002). It was first published in the academic literature by the United States Naval Research Laboratory in 2003 through independent research work. This approach also enabled Nanomix to make the first transistor on a flexible and transparent substrate.