This study reported the fabrication of tin oxide (SnO2) nanostructures on Co-coated Si substrates by the thermal heating of Sn powders. The microstructures and morphologies of the resultant nanostructures were studied by means of X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), selected area electron diffraction (SAED), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The product mainly comprised the tangled nanowires with average diameters in the range of 50-180 nm. The nanostructures were single-crystalline rutile structure of SnO2. The PL measurement with the Gaussian fitting exhibited visible light emission bands centered at 576 nm and 638 nm, respectively. We have discussed the possible growth mechanism of the nanostructures.