Use of a new ionic liquid crystal, 1-dodecyl-3-methylimidazolium iodide, and iodine as an electrolyte of dye-sensitized solar cells leads to a high short circuit photocurrent density and a high light-to-electricity conversion efficiency, due to a self-assembled structure of the imidazolium cations, resulting in high conductivity of the electrolyte.

Equilibrium potentials and charge transport of an I⁻/I₃ ⁻ redox couple in an ionic liquid, 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium bis(trifluoromethanesulfonyl)imide, are revealed by using a microelectrode technique, where the anomaly of the charge transport at high concentrations of the redox couple with comparable [I⁻] and [I₃ ⁻] can be attributed to the exchange reaction of I⁻ + I₃ ⁻ → I₃ ⁻ + I⁻.

Although ion channels are attractive targets for drug discovery, the systematic screening of ion channel-targeted drugs remains challenging. To facilitate automated single ion-channel recordings for the analysis of drug interactions with the intra- and extracellular domain, we have developed a parallel recording methodology using artificial cell membranes. The use of stable lipid bilayer formation in droplet chamber arrays facilitated automated, parallel, single-channel recording from reconstituted native and mutated ion channels. Using this system, several types of ion channels, including mutated forms, were characterised by determining the protein orientation. In addition, we provide evidence that both intra- and extracellular amyloid-beta fragments directly inhibit the channel open probability of the hBK channel. This automated methodology provides a high-throughput drug screening system for the targeting of ion channels and a data-intensive analysis technique for studying ion channel gating mechanisms.