In this paper, we report a solvothermal route to fabricate coralloid hierarchical SnO2 nanostructures. We obtain the product with different surface morphology at different reaction temperature. The breadth and length of the shot rod on the surface change with the temperature. A possible growth mechanism governing the formation of the nanostructures is discussed. Gas sensors based on the as-prepared SnO2 nanostructures exhibit high sensitivity, short recovery time, good reproducibility and linear dependence relation to benzaldehyde/acetone, which is significant for exploiting gas-sensing materials in the future. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.