In this work, porous SnO2 hollow nanofibers were fabricated by electrospinning technique and calcination procedure. The hollow SnO2 nanofibers were characterized by means of X-ray diffraction, energy dispersive X-ray detector, scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, Brunauer-Emmet-Teller and the gas sensing properties for ethanol were also investigated. The results indicated that rough porous SnO2 hollow nanostructure with large specific surface area (26.43 m(2)/g) was composed of very small nanoparticles (about 20 nm). The pore size was calculated above 4 nm. Furthermore, the gas sensor based on this hollow structure has an optimum operating temperature of 300 degrees C, high sensitivity, quick response and good selectivity for ethanol. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.