An aqueous combustion synthesis is used to produce powders of La0.8Sr0.2CrO3 perovskite. It is shown that interaction between chromium nitrate and glycine controls the process. In addition, it is suggested that glycine reacts with products of nitrate decomposition to yield an intermediate compound, which decomposes exothermically providing high-temperature conditions for complex oxide formation. It is remarkable that although reaction temperature is high (up to 800degreesC) and characteristic time is small (similar to1 s) for synthesis under the self-propagating high-temperature mode, the produced perovskites have high specific surface area (similar to40 m(2)/g) and well-defined crystalline structure. As a result, ceramics sintered by using these powders are dense (similar to96% of theoretical) and possess high electronic and low ionic conductivities, important for interconnect applications in solid oxide fuel cells.