IR sensors not working in sunlight
You don't say what sort of signal you are transmitting through the IR LED.  If it's constantly on, then the receiver has no way to distinguish it from sunlight.  They are both constantly on.
Handling sunlight requires something more sophisticated.  Modulate the transmitter by rapidly switching it on and off with a known signal.  A square wave of a few tens of kilohertz is typical.
Then at the receiver end, you need a bandpass filter to eliminate anything that doesn't look like your transmitted signal.  Amplify what is left after that filter.