Pure and Pr-doped SnO2 hollow nanofibers were fabricated through a facile single capillary electrospinning and followed by calcination. The properties of as-synthesized nanofibers were characterized by scanning electron microscopy, Brunauer-Emmett-Teller, transmission electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. Compared with pure fibers, Pr-doped SnO2 nanofibers exhibited excellent ethanol sensing properties at the optimum temperature of 300 degrees C. Maximum sensing response to ethanol was received in the fibers with 0.6 wt% Pr. The relationships between response time (recovery time) and temperature, response time (recovery time) and concentration were investigated. The results demonstrated that the high response and relatively short response/recovery time were related to surface area, adsorbed oxygen species and oxygen vacancies. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.