A hydrothermal strategy combined with colloidal deposition synthesis was successfully used to grow ZnO/perovskite (LaBO3, B = Mn, Co, Ni) core-shell nanorod arrays within three dimensional (3-D) honeycomb cordierite substrates. A facile sonication assisted colloidal wash coating process is able to coat a uniformly dispersed perovskite nanoparticles onto the large scale ZnO nanorod arrays rooted on the channel surfaces of the 3D cordierite substrate achieved by hydrothermal synthesis. Compared to traditional wash-coated perovskite catalysts, an enhanced catalytic performance was observed for propane oxidation with 25 degrees C lower light-off temperature than powder-form coated perovskite catalyst of similar LaMnO3 loading (4.3 mg). Temperature programmed reduction and desorption under H-2 and O-2 atmosphere, respectively, were used to study the reducibility and oxygen activity of these core-shell nanorod array based monolithic catalysts, revealing a catalytic activity sequence of LaCoO3 > LaMnO3 > La2NiO4 at the initial stage of catalytic reaction. The good dispersion and size control in La-based perovskite nanopartides and their interfaces to ZnO nanorod array support may contribute to the enhancement of catalytic performance. This work may provide a new type of Pt-group metals (PGM) free catalysts with improved catalytic performance for hydrocarbon oxidations at low temperature. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.