Alkaline earth metal doped tin oxide (SnO2) hollow nanospheres with a diameter of 50 nm have been synthesized successfully via a facial solvothermal route in a very simple system composed of only ethanol, acetic acid, SnCl4 center dot 5H(2)O and A(NO3)(2)center dot xH(2)O (A = Mg, Ca, Sr, Ba). The synthesized undoped SnO2 and A-doped SnO2 hollow nanospheres were characterized by the oxygen storage capacity (OSC), X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy and the Brunauer-Emmet-Teller (BET) technique. The OSC values of all samples were measured using thermogravimetric-differential thermal analysis. The incorporation of alkaline earth metal ion into tin oxide greatly enhanced the thermal stability and OSC. Especially, Ba-doped SnO2 hollow nanospheres calcined at 1000 degrees C for 20 h with a BET surface area of 61 m(2) g(-1) exhibited the considerably high OSC of 457 mu mol-O g(-1) and good thermal stability. Alkaline earth metal doped tin oxide has the potential to be a novel oxygen storage material. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.