Bio

Levi Palmer is a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford beginning August 2026. As an Arnold O. Beckman Fellow and a Geballe Laboratory for Advanced Materials (GLAM) Fellow, he is working with Professors Kate Reidy, Colin Ophus, and Stacey Bent to develop in situ microscopy methods to image materials growth, performance, and failure at atomic scales.

Prior to his time at Stanford, Levi was an NSF Graduate Research Fellow at Caltech. He completed his Ph.D. in Chemistry under Professor Scott Cushing to image carrier and heat dynamics in photocatalysts by developing ultrafast electron energy-loss spectroscopy (EELS) methods. During his Ph.D., he also received a DOE Office of Science Graduate Student Research (SCGSR) Fellowship to work at Argonne National Laboratory with Dr. Thomas Gage. He earned his B.S. in Chemistry from the University of Minnesota – Twin Cities and studied under Professor Renee Frontiera.

Honors & Awards

  • Arnold O. Beckman Postdoctoral Fellowship, Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation (08/01/2026)
  • GLAM Postdoctoral Fellowship, Geballe Laboratory for Advanced Materials, Stanford University (08/01/2026)

Professional Education

  • Doctor of Philosophy, California Institute of Technology (2026)
  • B.S., University of Minnesota – Twin Cities, Chemistry (2020)
  • Ph.D., California Institute of Technology, Chemistry (2026)

Stanford Advisors

Contact

  • Academic
    ldpalmer@stanford.edu
    University - Scholar Department: Materials Science and Engineering Position: Postdoctoral Scholar

Lab Affiliations

All Publications

  • Oxidizing Role of Cu Cocatalysts in Unassisted Photocatalytic CO2Reduction Using p-GaN/Al2O3/Au/Cu Heterostructures. ACS nano Zoric, M. R., Basera, P., Palmer, L. D., Aitbekova, A., Powers-Riggs, N., Lim, H., Hu, W., Garcia-Esparza, A. T., Sarker, H., Abild-Pedersen, F., Atwater, H. A., Cushing, S. K., Bajdich, M., Cordones, A. A. 2024

    Abstract

    Photocatalytic CO2 reduction to CO under unassisted (unbiased) conditions was recently demonstrated using heterostructure catalysts that combine p-type GaN with plasmonic Au nanoparticles and Cu nanoparticles as cocatalysts (p-GaN/Al2O3/Au/Cu). Here, we investigate the mechanistic role of Cu in p-GaN/Al2O3/Au/Cu under unassisted photocatalytic operating conditions using Cu K-edge X-ray absorption spectroscopy and first-principles calculations. Upon exposure to gas-phase CO2 and H2O vapor reaction conditions, the composition of the Cu nanoparticles is identified as a mixture of CuI and CuII oxide, hydroxide, and carbonate compounds without metallic Cu. These composition changes, indicating oxidative conditions, are rationalized by bulk Pourbaix thermodynamics. Under photocatalytic operating conditions with visible light excitation of the plasmonic Au nanoparticles, further oxidation of CuI to CuII is observed, indicating light-driven hole transfer from Au-to-Cu. This observation is supported by the calculated band alignments of the oxidized Cu compositions with plasmonic Au particles, where light-driven hole transfer from Au-to-Cu is found to be thermodynamically favored. These findings demonstrate that under unassisted (unbiased) gas-phase reaction conditions, Cu is found in carbonate-rich oxidized compositions rather than metallic Cu. These species then act as the active cocatalyst and play an oxidative rather than a reductive role in catalysis when coupled with plasmonic Au particles for light absorption, possibly opening an additional channel for water oxidation in this system.

    View details for DOI 10.1021/acsnano.4c02088

    View details for PubMedID 39037113