A high surface area rhombohedral LaCoO3 perovskite (ELS-JX)was synthesized by SBA-15 assisted electrospinning combined with aOH etching technology and investigated for total benzene oxidation. LaCoO3 nanoparticles are confined in the self-assembled nanorods or scattered on the mesopores/surface of SBA-15 resulting in less aggregation of perovskite nanoparticles for ELS-JX. H2-TP Ranalysis and XPS measurements reveal that better low -temperature reducibility higher Oads/Olatt and Co-2+/Co-3+ as well as larger amounts of surface exposed Co species of ELS-JX considerably enhance its catalytic activity for total benzene oxidation compared to sol-gel (SG) and SBA-15 free electrospinning (EL)method synthesized LaCO3. Moreover the results of O-2-TPSR match well with the catalytic performances of SG EL and ELS-JX. In addition the presence of water vapor has a negative effect on benzene oxidation over the best performed ELS-JX. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.