Role of Irradiance in Light-Activated In₂O₃Gas Sensors: Why More Light Is Not Always Better

Light-assisted metal oxide-based chemiresistive gas sensors are widely explored for operation at relatively low temperatures, yet the investigation of the role of irradiance, as opposed to wavelength, remains underrepresented. Here, we systematically quantify the irradiance-dependent behavior of ordered mesoporous In2O3 under visible light illumination. Photoconductivity measurements reveal two distinct irradiance regimes consistent with trap-limited transport at low power and recombination- or saturation-limited transport at high power. Gas sensing experiments towards CO and H2 show a pronounced non-monotonic response, reaching maximum responses of 0.74 for 135 ppm CO at 67 mW cm−2 and 0.64 for 90 ppm H2 at 11 mW cm−2, followed by strong suppression at higher irradiance. Illumination also accelerated the response kinetics. At 60 ppm, t90 decreases from 96 to 12 s for CO and 141 to 27 s for H2, corresponding to an 8- and 5-fold faster response time, respectively. Near-ambient pressure-XPS under controlled atmosphere and density functional theory calculations indicate defect-mediated excitation. Oxygen vacancy states and illumination-induced modification of surface oxygen species govern this behavior. The results establish irradiance as a critical mechanistic parameter that determines whether In2O3 operates in a surface-controlled or bulk photoconductive regime. These findings highlight the need to explicitly optimize and report irradiance in illuminated gas sensor studies, and not only the power consumption of the light source.