As tin based electrodes are of significant interest in the development of improved lithium-ion batteries it is important to understand the associated electrochemical reactions. In this work it is shown that the electrochemical behavior of SnO2 coated tin electrodes can be described based on the SnO2 and SnO conversion reactions, the lithium tin alloy formation and the oxidation of tin generating SnF2. The CV, XPS and SEM data, obtained for electrodeposited tin crystals on gold substrates, demonstrates that the capacity loss often observed for SnO2 is caused by the reformed SnO2 layer serving as a passivating layer protecting the remaining tin. Capacities corresponding up to about 80% of the initial SnO2 capacity could, however, be obtained by cycling to 3.5 V vs. Li+/Li. It is also shown that the oxidation of the lithium tin alloy is hindered by the rate of the diffusion of lithium through a layer of tin with increasing thickness and that the irreversible oxidation of tin to SnF2 at potentials larger than 2.8V vs. Li+/Li is due to the fact that SnF2 is formed below the SnO2 layer. This improved electrochemical understanding of the SnO2/Sn system should be valuable in the development of tin based electrodes for lithium-ion batteries. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.