A new combustion synthesis method, the glycine-nitrate process, has been used to prepare complex oxide ceramic powders of La_xSr_1－xNi_1－yCo_yO₃. A series of perovskite oxides were characterized by XRD. The cyclic voltammetry curves of oxygen reduction and oxygen release were obtained with and without flowing oxygen. The result shows that oxygen electrodes have bifunctional catalysis activity but it is not completely reversible. The degradation experiment of various water-soluble dyestuff and five-component mixed dyestuff was performed by photo catalytic methods. A fluorescent Hg lamp was used as irradiation source. The catalytic activity of La_xSr_1－xNi_1－yCo_yO₃ was studied with UV-Vis, IR and artificial nerve network and spectrophotometry. The results show that the complex oxides of La_xSr_1－xNi_1－yCo_yO₃ (x＝0.7, 0.9; y＝0.3, 0.75) presented evident photo catalytic activity. The La_xSr_1－xNi_1－yCo_yO₃ showed stronger activities than La_0.7Sr_0.3NiO₃, and this is attributed to the unique electronic structure of the ion B (Ni^3＋, Co^3＋). The results showed that adding Co²⁺ can sharply improve the photo-electro catalytic activity of La_xSr_1－x- Ni_1－yCo_yO₃.

Key words: La_xSr_1－xNi_1－yCo_yO₃, bifunctional oxygen electrode, photo catalytic activity, water-soluble dyestuff, artificial neural network