In this article, antimony-doped tin oxide (ATO) nanoparticles was synthesized by a facile polymer-pyrolysis method The pyrolysis behaviors of the polymer precursors prepared via in situ polymerization of metal salts and acrylic acid were analyzed by simultaneous thermogravimetric and differential scanning calorimetry (TG-DSC). The structural and morphological characteristics of the products were studied by powder X-ray diffraction (XRD) and transmission electron microscope (TEM) The results reveal that the Am nanoparticles calcined at 600 degrees C show good crystallinity with the cassitetite structure and cubic-spherical like morphology The average particle size of ATO decreases from 200 to 15 nm as the Sb doping content increases from 5 mol% to 15 mol%. Electrical resistivity measurements shows that the resistivity for the 10-13 mol% Sb-doped SnO(2) nanoparticles is reduced by mole than three orders compared with the pule SnO(2) nanoparticles In addition, due to its versatility this polymer-pyrolysis method can be extended to facile synthesis of other doped n-type semiconductor, such as In, Ga, Al doped ZnO, Sn doped In(2)O(3) (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd All rights reserved