In this work, a novel system of water/2-propanol/1-butanol (W/iP/nB) was developed to synthesizeLa
1-xBa
xMn
2Al
10O
19 (
x = 0, 0.05) catalysts. These catalysts were also synthesized by the hydrolysis of thealkoxides in distilled water. The physicochemical properties of the catalysts were characterized by transmissionelectron microscopy, X-ray powder diffraction, and N
2 adsorption isotherm measurements. The effects of thereaction medium and drying method on the properties of the catalysts were investigated. The results showedthat La
0.95Ba
0.05Mn
2Al
10O
19 catalyst synthesized in W/iP/nB had a higher activity in methane combustion(
T10% = 425
C;
T10% = the temperature at 10% methane conversion) than that prepared in distilled water(
T10% = 515
C). After the reaction was run at 700
C for 100 h under the reaction conditions, La
0.95Ba
0.05Mn
2Al
10O
19 catalyst synthesized in W/iP/nB showed a higher stability than that prepared in distilled water.The LaMn
2Al
10O
19 synthesized by subcritical drying showed a higher activity (
T10% = 440
C) than thatprepared by conventional oven drying. La
0.95Ba
0.05Mn
2Al
10O
19 catalyst showed a higher activity than LaMn
2Al
10O
19, which was ascribed to the partial substitution of Ba for La. Furthermore, the structure property ofwater in W/iP/nB was investigated by means of FT-IR, NMR, electric conductivity, and laser light scatteringgranulometry. It was proposed that a novel reverse microemulsion of W/iP/nB is formed by distilled water,2-propanol, and 1-butanol. The hydrolysis of the alkoxides in W/iP/nB was controlled efficiently, just as ina conventional reverse microemulsion.