A suite of four samples of nitrogen doped carbon microspheres, each with a different level of nitrogen dopant, was synthesised in a horizontal chemical vapour deposition reaction. The samples were characterized using scanning electron microscopy, Raman spectroscopy and electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy. Scanning electron microscopy showed that microspheres were produced by the reaction. Raman spectroscopy confirmed the graphitic nature of the samples. Electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy determined that nitrogen was present in the graphitic lattice and was used as a non-destructive technique to measure the amount of substitutional nitrogen present in the samples. In order to perform electrical transport measurements an automated magneto-transport measurement station was developed in the laboratory. This transport station was computer controlled and contained all of the necessary hardware and software required to perform magneto-electrical transport measurements. Variable temperature electrical transport measurements were performed on all samples to determine their conductive properties. Resistance measurements showed that two of the samples were semiconductors while the other two samples displayed a transition to metallic behaviour at higher temperatures. This transition can be ascribed to the thermal desorption of nitrogen dopant. Models were fitted to the data and the semiconducting behaviour is best explained by a model of fluctuation induced tunnelling while the metallic behaviour is best explained by a quasi-1 dimensional metallic term based on electron-phonon interactions. The IV characteristics of two of the samples display increasing non-linearity of the current's voltage dependence with decreasing temperature. The other two samples exhibit this behaviour at lower temperatures while higher temperature IV data displays a current saturation with increasing voltage. The same models used to explain the resistance measurements can be used to explain the IV characteristics data extremely well. The magnetoresistance data taken with the direction of current flow orientated both parallel and perpendicular to the field, show a transition from negative to positive magnetoresistance with decreasing temperature. The results of these experiments are inconclusive, as a theoretical model of magnetoresistance in systems that conduct via fluctuation induced tunnelling is not well defined. A comparison between the resistance measurements of all four samples was made to determine the effect of nitrogen doping on the samples' ii Abstract electronic transport properties. The result of this comparison was indeterminate. This was due to samples with identical nitrogen dopant levels displaying vastly different conductive properties and indicates that very strict synthesis conditions need to be adhered to in order to ensure sample quality. Resistance measurements were rerun on the two samples that displayed purely semiconducting behaviour to investigate the possibility of atmospheric doping. It was foun...
