Intracellular permeant anions, and not extracellular protons, are the predominant driver of fast gating in the hyperpolarization-activated CLC-2 chloride channel.

Key points• Plasma membrane ClC-2 chloride channels are widely distributed in our body and are important for vision and fertility.• ClC-2 channels are gated by changes in transmembrane voltage despite of lacking a voltage sensor device. It has been hypothesized that the interaction of an external proton with the gating machinery is responsible for voltage-dependent gating.

Recombination mechanisms in solar cells are frequently assessed through the determination of ideality factors. In this work we report an abrupt change of the value of the “apparent” ideality factor (nAP) in high‐efficiency FA0.71MA0.29PbI2.9Br0.1 based mesoscopic perovskite solar cells as a function of light intensity. This change is manifested as a transition from a regime characterized by nAP∼1.8–2.5 at low light intensities (<10 mWcm‐2) to one characterized by nAP∼1. This transition is equally observed in the recombination resistance extracted from open‐circuit impedance measurements. We use drift‐diffusion simulations with explicit consideration of ion migration to determine the origin of this transition. We find that a change ofrecombination mechanism concurrent with a modification of the concentration of ionic vacancies is the most likely explanation of the observed behaviour. In the drift‐diffusion simulations we show that the apparent ideality factor is in fact affected by the ion vacancy concentration so it is not the optimal parameter to assess the dominant recombination mechanism. We argue that a procedure based on a recently derived “electronic” ideality factor obtained from the high frequency feature of the impedance spectrum is better suited to determine the recombination route that dictates the photovoltage.

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Mo/alumina cermet-based selective coatings are of great interest for concentrated solar-thermal power systems, in particular, parabolic trough collectors. We report on the sputter deposition of high-performance multilayer Mo/alumina cermet coatings on stainless steel with a solar absorptance of 94% and a thermal emittance of 8% (at 400 °C), and excellent thermal stability. The selective coatings were deposited in a 0.95 m3 sputtering chamber in order to correlate the deposition parameters, such as presence of residual gases, deposition power, and sputtering method (DC or RF), with the coating composition and the resulting optical properties. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, x-ray diffraction, and Raman spectroscopy have been applied to quantitatively describe the effect of residual oxygen on the distribution of oxidation states of Mo in the metallic infrared reflector layer, the high and low metallic volume fraction cermet layers, as well as the composition of the alumina top layer. The results provide strategies to obtain optimal selective coatings under conditions where residual oxygen cannot be avoided, which are essential for a successful transition from a laboratory to pre-industrial scale of vacuum deposition systems.