Orientalist Perspectives in Ellis’s Breadwinner Trilogy: A Postcolonial Critique

The study critically engages with the issue of continuity of the orientalist rhetoric in the contemporary literary yields. To establish and substantiate the argument, the researchers have analyzed Deborah Ellis’s Breadwinner Trilogy (2009) that comprises Breadwinner, Parvana’s Journey, and Mud City. All the three fictional narratives claims to have represented the life of the Pakistani and Afghani characters who have been shown to face the existential threats in the wake of the insecurities that have engulfed the region. However, the study contends, the Canadian writer has also given way to the parochial psychological and sociological schema that has been held as the prime representational trope regarding the East, that is, Orientalism. The qualitative and textual approach has facilitated the researchers to negotiate the identified thematic patterns with the interpretive freedom. In this regard, framing the fictional representation into the Saidian critique of the orientalist discourse, the study explicates the reductive approach of the writer and exposes the latent ideological triggers working under the manifest humanist projections. Thus, the study strengthens the postcolonial stance and, therefore, will sharpen the Pakistani students’ understanding of the current socio-literary debates.

Growth and Characterization of Doped Metal Oxide Nanostructured Thin Films

Nanostructured materials including variety of metals and semiconducting oxides in the field of one dimensional (1-D) nanostructure have fascinated great attention from both fundamental basis and technological points of view. Zero (0-dimensional) and one dimensional (1-D) nanostructured metal oxide thin films including nanostructures, such as nanobelts, nanowires, nanotubes, nanorods, nanopyramids and nanospheres etc. have gained incredible consideration for their potential applications in optoelectronic as well as in electronic technology within the last decade. Some fundamental facts and phenomena related to 1-D nanostructures are still not cleared for example, high surface to volume ratio in semiconductors demonstrate surprising growth architecture, e.g. temperature and diameter-dependent growth directions, strange doping levels and organization, which are still not known for their macroscopic crystals or thin-film counterparts. The incorporation of metallic nanoparticles in semiconductor materials not only customize its properties but also breed a collective new event based on interaction of both at interface. The addition of external metallic ions through any means can promote charge separation effectively and also improve light absorption in the semiconductor. In this thesis, state-of-the-art approaches and strategies for shaping of one-dimensional functional semiconductors can be used for variety of applications including sensors, actuators, optoelectronics, spintronic, biomedical sciences and energy harvesting fields. Amongst semiconducting metal oxide nanomaterials, Chromium Dioxide (Cr2O3), Zinc Oxide (ZnO), and Tungsten oxide (WO) are important and most promising candidates for use as functional building blocks in wide range of applications, based on the fact that they are the best candidates for structural, chemical, optical and transport properties for use in optical and electrochemical devices. These novel materials with unique physical and chemical properties have been significantly assigned to their distinctive structural aspects in between the isolated quantum atoms and the bulk macroscopic materials. Upto now, various doping elements may n or p-type have been studied as a dopant in metal oxides to improve their conductivity and stability at high temperatures. For example, n type or p-type dopant elements exploit the properties of the host oxide and manipulate conductivity by generating surplus or deficiency in the valence electrons. In this project, we successfully report the production of fractal type one dimensional (1-D) semiconductor nanostructures including (nanosheets, nanotriangles, nanodiamond like octahedrons, nanoflakes, nanowires, nanopillars, nanocauliflowers, nanospheres and nanopyramids) of Cr2O3, ZnO and WO doped with transition metals including Nickel (Ni), Niobium (Nb), Germanium (Ge), Gold (Au), Zirconium (Zr) and Multiwalled Carbon Nanotubes (MWCNTs) as dopant elements to tailor the structural, morphological, vibrational, optical and transport properties of host oxides. We utilized Pulsed Laser Deposition (PLD) technique for the growth of Ni doped Cr2O3 thin films whereas Aerosol assisted chemical vapor deposition (AACVD), a chemical solution based method is used to synthesize semiconducting metal oxide nanowires, nanospheres, nanopillars, nanocauliflowers, nanoflakes and nanopyramids in doped Zinc Oxide (ZnO) and Tungsten Oxide (WO). The morphological properties, crystalline structure, chemical composition and optical behavior are presented to understand the fundamentals involved in the growth of 1-D nano architecture. We investigate the parameters which control the nucleation, organization and evolution of these multifaceted structures providing new insights to the stepwise homogeneous mechanism and the conventional nucleation performed by the metallic ions. In recent years, one of the variant of CVD called aerosol assisted chemical vapor deposition (AACVD) provides a wide range and choice of precursors which are soluble in solvents. Also the delivery of the precursors is very simplified and easy for different chemical sources to transport e.g. species of Zn, O and any doping through single line. The architecture of AACVD grown thin films for optoelectronic devices can be tailored by the suitable choice of substrate, physical aspects of solute and solvent, type of carrier gas and growth environment i.e. substrate temperature. The most critical parameters during deposition in aerosol assisted CVD involves the maintained substrate temperature and duration which can affect the quality of nanostructures. Under consideration of these parameters, we have successfully deposited coatings and produced nanoarchitecture of doped metal oxide nanostructured thin films of Cr2O3 using PLD (at temperature of 450°C onto silicon, 1 0 0), ZnO and WO using AACVD (at temperature of 400°C onto silica) via methanol and toluene. Various metalorganic sol of precursors was considered for their viability in yielding doped zinc oxide nanohierarchical architecture by AACVD, potentially active in the market of transparent conductors. Electrical conductivities of the grown nanostructures were observed to be ineffective for use in TCO; however, nanostructured thin films produced from precursor of zinc acetate [Zn (C2H3O2)2] showed high transparency in the visible (VIS) and infrared (80-90) % region with preferential orientation along (0 0 2) or c-axis growth. All deposited nanostructured thin films presents fluctuating surface morphology, crystallite orientations which were subjected to the experimental conditions e.g. substrate temperature during deposition and choice of doping. The outcomes of this project involves the success in tailoring of densely packed fractal type nanostructures including nanosheets, nanodiamond like octahedrons for the first time reported in literature, nanowires, nanospheres, nanopyramids, nanopillars and nanocauliflowers with improved structural, morphological and functional (optical and electrical) properties for use in technological applications e.g. optoelectronics and gas sensors. Rarely developed nanopyramids and nanotriangles of ZnO and Cr2O3 in this project potentially can be used in thin film solar cells of silicon community, because firstly this pyramidal architecture can meritoriously enhance scattering of light that can probably increases the absorption of light being absorbed by the cell and secondly such type of hierarchical structures can easily be prepared by simple approaches based on solution dynamics and powder metallurgical methods rather than expensive vacuumcentered techniques. Later, nanoarchitecture of Zinc Oxide (ZnO) and Tungsten Oxide (WO) were redeposited onto sensor substrate using AACVD. All patterned undoped and doped metal oxide sensors were tested at various gases to investigate the detection of toxic trace elements that is also a future task.