One promising way to improve the power conversion efficiency (PCE) of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs), which have attracted great interest due to their low cost, is modifying the working electrode. In this work, Tm and Yb doped as well as undoped In2O3 inverse opals (IOs) were synthesized by the sol-gel method. DSSCs based on In2O3, In2O3:Tm and In2O3:Yb IOs as photoanodes were fabricated and studied. It is observed that the device performance including open-circuit voltage (V-oc) and short-circuit current (J(sc)) increased largely with the increasing pore size of the IOs and the introduction of Tm and Yb elements in the In2O3 lattices. The PCE of the DSSC was increased from 0.33% to 0.96% when the In2O3 IOs photoanode was substituted by In2O3:Yb IOs. The electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) measurements indicate that the modification of band gap in the Tm and Yb doped In2O3 IOs is significant for the improved performance, which can effectively suppress the charge transfer recombination and improve the electron lifetime. (C) 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.