ZnO-SnO2 composite oxides with various molar ratios of Sn:Zn have been synthesized at different calcination temperatures via a facile cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB)-assisted co-precipitation method with Zn(NO3)(2)center dot 6H(2)O and SnCl4 center dot 5H(2)O as starting materials. XRD, TEM, SEM and BET were employed to characterize the as-prepared samples. It has been found that amorphous intermediates appear between the evolutions of ZnO and SnO2 crystals. The photocatalytic properties of the composite oxides were investigated using photocatalytic degradation of methyl orange as the probe reaction. The results show that the ZnO-SnO2 composite oxide with a cube morphology exhibits the best photocatalytic activity, which was prepared with a molar ratio of Zn: Sn of 2: 1 and calcination temperature of 700 degrees C. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.