The drastic volume change is the major drawback limiting stannic oxide as an anode material for lithium ion batteries. In this work, three-dimensional (3D) EG@SnO2@PANI composite is synthesized via solvothermal method followed by in-situ oxidative polymerization. Compare with the bare SnO2 and EG@SnO2 samples, the rate performance and cycling stability of the EG@SnO2@PANI sample have been enhanced, which can be attributed to the dual conductive networks of polyaniline (PANI) with expanded graphite (EG). As a result, the 3D EG@SnO2@PANI composite not only delivers a higher initial columbic efficiency of 77.8%, an excellent initial reversible capacity of 1021 mAh g(-1) at a current density of 0.1 A g(-1) but also still maintains at 408 mAh g-1 after 100 cycles. And it exhibits enhanced rate performance, which remains at 270 mAh g(-1) with 2 A g(-1). Consequently, preparing EG@SnO2@PANI is a suitable strategy to develop SnO2 anode materials for lithium batteries. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.