Kang Rui Garrick Lim
Bio: Garrick is a materials chemist from Singapore. He completed his Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry from National University of Singapore (2015–2019), working on multi-core-shelled quantum dots. After a year at Singapore’s Institute of Materials Research and Engineering applying 2D MXenes for electrocatalysis (2019–2020), Garrick moved to the USA to earn his Master’s and PhD degree in Chemistry from Harvard (2020–2025). Garrick’s PhD dissertation, advised by Prof. Joanna Aizenberg, envisions a modular raspberry-colloid-templating strategy as a model thermocatalytic platform. He demonstrated how nanoparticle proximity and embedding into the catalytic support, together with nanoscale wetting phenomena, substantially controls catalytic outcomes. Garrick’s studies were supported by Singapore’s National Science Scholarship. Garrick has won awards from the North American Catalysis Society, ACS, MRS, GRC, Harvard, amongst others.
Postdoctoral research project: Thermocatalytic CO2 conversion to fuels. A key strategy to our global CO2 mitigation challenge involves CO2 capture and utilization (CCU). From a technoeconomic standpoint, broad-based CCU is viable only if post-capture CO2 feedstock becomes commercially inexpensive. Additionally, its products should provide at least the same, if not higher, value and performance as existing products, while producing less CO2 in these processes. Presently, thermocatalytic CO2 conversion produces single carbon products like methane, carbon monoxide, and methanol. One potential CCU application is to convert CO2 to higher value-added products with at least two carbon atoms. At Stanford, Garrick will colloidally design precise catalytic architectures to control the chemistry of catalytically active sites and their immediate environment, thereby directing carbon-carbon bond formation and driving the production of energy-dense fuels containing multiple carbon atoms.
Research Focus: Carbon Removal
Advisors: Matteo Cargnello - Chemical Engineering | Thomas Jaramillo - Chemical Engineering & Energy Science Engineering