Graphene-based composite materials have attracted considerable interest due to their dramatic performance in various applications. However, the present syntheses of these materials, usually via graphene oxide (GO), are still very expensive. In this work, we propose an easy and affordable strategy based on sulfuric acid intercalated GO (SIGO) for the preparation of graphene clamped nano-SnO2 (GCSnO2) with high performance for lithium-ion batteries. SIGO is the direct and readily available intermediate product of graphite oxidation in sulfuric acid, but has been overlooked for nearly a century. In the past, it was washed to clean GO with great difficulties. An interesting characteristic of SIGO that we have found is its easy expansion and exfoliation to high quality graphene at very low temperatures (just above 100 oC). On this basis, GCSnO2 containing 55 wt % SnO2 nanoparticles (5~10 nm in diameters) has been prepared by expansion and exfoliation of nano-SnO2 coated SIGO at 300 oC in air. The samples have been characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). The initial reversible charge/discharge capacity of GCSnO2 was 858 mAh/g at a current density of 200 mAh/g in the potential range between 0.02 and 2.00 V. The capacity decayed to about 600 mAh/g after 10 cycles and then kept almost unchanged and 572 mAh/g remained after the studied 270 cycles. The contribution of SnO2 was estimated to be about 800 mAh/g during cycling, corresponding to the full and stable utilization of the theoretical capacity of SnO2.