Spherical porous tin oxide was fabricated via a spray pyrolysis technique. TEM revealed that the primary SnO2 crystals had an average size of 5-10 nm. Good interconnection between SnO2 crystals is also observed. The electrochemical measurements showed that the spherical porous SnO2 samples have excellent cyclability, which can deliver a reversible capacity of 4 10 mAh/g for up to 50 cycles as a negative electrode for lithium batteries. Our approach for enhancing the structural stability of tin oxide is to incorporate spherical porous structures as a buffer zone to alleviate the volume expansion of the tin oxide anode during lithiation/delithiation. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.