How to design efficient interfacial catalysts? 

Interfacial catalysts are developed today as ever by empirical methods despite of their strategic relevance for chemical industry and the energy transition. The wealth of knowledge from surface science proves insufficient for a knowledge-based design approach. One critical reason for this gap is chemical dynamics under working conditions leading to profound constitutional changes of the interface and its sub-surface volume. Using results from operando experiments and from theory allows us to redesign catalysts as thin film systems with pre-defined chemical dynamics.