A system of interfaced AFM and Raman microscopes was used to study heterogeneity of complex cat- alytic materials providing information on both the topography and the chemical composition of the surface in one measurement. The catalysts surface was examined at various stages of their preparation: precalcination of steel, washcoating, impregnation and doping. It has been shown that the surface of the precalcined steel sheets is covered mostly by

-Al 2 O 3 although there are places where

-Fe 2 O 3 and Fe 3 O 4 are also present. Washcoating of the precalcined sheets gives only partly uniform grain distribution of CeO 2 . Impregnation with cobalt leads to formation of uniform coverage of Co 3 O 4 . Depending on the presence or absence of ceria washcoat layer, palladium doped to the cobalt catalyst may give dispersed Pd 0 grains or large grains of PdO, respectively. High n -nonane combustion activity and thermal stability of cobalt palladium doped catalysts deposited directly on the precalcined steel than was correlated with the presence of PdO phase.