A simple, facile co-precipitation technique was successfully used to synthesize the pure, and Mn-doped SnO 2 nanoparticles (NPs) and characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier Transform Infrared (FT-IR)), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), UV-vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy and photoluminescence (PL). XRD analysis indicated that the prepared samples have the pure tetragonal structure of SnO 2. The doping of Mn on SnO 2 surface enhances the crystallite size of the SnO 2 NPs. The polycrystalline in nature SnO 2 nanoparticles was confirmed by SAED pattern. FT-IR analysis illustrates the presence of stretching vibration of the O-Sn-O bond in both SnO 2 and Mn-doped SnO 2 NPs. SEM and TEM analysis shows that the SnO 2 particles are spherical in shape and are uniformly dispersed inside the nanocomposite matrix. The average particle size of SnO 2 in pure SnO 2 and Mn-doped SnO 2 NPs was determined as~14 and 12 nm respectively. The optical analysis confirmed a redshift by doping Mn on SnO 2. The band gap energy for pure SnO 2 and Mn-doped SnO 2 NPs are 3.14 eV to 2.87 eV, respectively. The visible emission was observed from PL analysis. Photocatalytic activity of the pure SnO 2 and Mn-doped SnO 2 are tested using Rhodamine B (RhB) dye as a model compound under UV light. The results revealed that the Mn-doped SnO 2 NPs exhibited higher efficiency than pure SnO 2 for the degradation of RhB dye and furthermore with increasing the amount of Mn doping further enhanced the degradation rate of R hB dye. The synthesized samples present good reusable stability. Dielectric loss of the prepared pure and Mn-doped SnO 2 NPs exhibited a linear trend at higher frequency domain. Increased dopant amount reduced the ac conductivity which is attributed to the particle size effect with the presence of the impurities.