Conventional synthesis of ceramic oxide compositions is time consuming and consequently limits the compositions that can be studied. A way round this is the use of combinatorial methods to explore much wider ranges of compositions. Using an inkjet based robot system; London University Search Instrument (LUSI) combinatorial arrays of ceramic dot samples can be produced. The first part of the study consists of the characterisation of a printed array of La0.8Sr0.2CoO3-delta to ensure the reproducibility and quality of the ceramic dots and suitability for isotopic exchange experiments. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.