A simple hydrothermal method was developed for the size-controlled synthesis of SnS2 nanoparticles, using common and inexpensive SnCl(4 center dot)5H(2)O and thioacetamide as the reactants and 5 vol.% acetic acid aqueous solution as the solvent. The structure, composition and optical property of the obtained products were characterized by X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, Brumauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) surface area analysis and UV-vis diffuse reflectance spectra, and their possible formation mechanism was proposed. Besides, their photocatalytic properties were tested by degrading methyl orange in distilled water (20 mg/l) under visible light (lambda>420 nm) irradiation. It was found that SnS2 nanoparticles synthesized under the appropriate hydrothermal conditions not only exhibited high visible light-driven photocatalytic activity, but also had good photocatalytic stability. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.