A conventional solid state reaction between ZrO 2 , SnO 2 and WO 3 was used to prepare the negative thermal expansion material Zr (12x) Sn x W 2 O 8 . The strong negative thermal expansion over a broad temperature range, which is well known for the pure zirconium tungstate compound, is also demonstrated in this substituted material. However, the order-disorder phase transition of the cubic materials was shown to shift towards lower temperatures, dependent on the degree of Sn 41 -substitution, by dilatometry and temperature variable X-ray diffraction. This is attributed to the lower bond strength of the Sn-O bond in comparison to the Zr-O bond. The unit cell parameters of the material are significantly smaller due to the insertion of smaller Sn 41 -cations on the Zr 41 -position in the structure. For one composition (x ~0.3), the structure of Zr (12x) Sn x W 2 O 8 was studied by neutron diffraction at two temperatures, 293 K and 473 K, corresponding to respectively the low temperature a-, and high temperature b-polymorph of Zr (12x) Sn x W 2 O 8 . The refined structures were found to be similar to that of ZrW 2 O 8 at the same temperatures. Variable temperature X-ray diffraction of the same sample was used to establish the phase transition temperature, by refining the fractional occupancy of the possible tungstate orientations with temperature.