Novel dendritic SnO2 nanostructures were successfully synthesized through thermal evaporation of the mixture of ZnS and Sn powders. X-ray diffraction (XRD), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and contact angle (CA) apparatus were used to characterize the crystal structure and wettability of as-synthesized product. The results show that each dendrite-like SnO2 nanostructures consists of several branches, and each branch possess lengths of several tens to hundreds nanometers. The whole dendrite covers several square micrometers. A possible growth mechanism based on growth condition was proposed to interpret the formation of dendritic SnO2 nanostructures. The synthesized dendritic SnO2 nanostructures might be used for fabricating novel sensor nanodevices. (c) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.