Controllable two-step growth and photoluminescence of waterweed-like SnO 2 nanowires

•Waterweed-like SnO2 nanowires with uniform morphologies have been synthesized via a two-step VLS mechanism.•Nanowhiskers with enlarged surface-to-volume ratio can be grown on nanowires accurately.•The waterweed-like SnO2 nanowires can be applied in potential applications in lithium-ion batteries.•The emsssion peaks of the waterweed-like SnO2 nanowires show strong orange emission and small red shifts.•The PL results show that the waterweed-like SnO2 nanowires has bigger intefrated intensity ratio (1.25) than pure SnO2.