Magnesium aluminate spinel (MgAl2O4) is an excellent refractory oxide of immense
technological importance as a structural ceramic. It possesses useful physical, chemical and
thermal properties, both at normal and elevated temperatures. It melts congruently at 2135°C,
shows high resistance to attack by most of the acids and alkalis and has low electrical losses.
Due to these desirable properties, it has a wide range of application in structural, chemicaloptical and electrical industry. It is used as a refractory in lining of steel-making furnaces,
transition and burning zones of cement rotary kilns, checker work of the glass furnace
regenerators, sidewalls and bottom of the steel ladles, glass furnaces and melting tanks.
Synthesis and fabrication of spinel MgAl2O4 is known since long. A number of techniques
such as, conventional solid-state-reaction (SSR), sol-gel, spray drying (atomization) and
organic gel-assisted citrate complexation, have been extensively employed [1–13]. The
conventional SSR method is the most utilized one in spinel preparation. However, it has
several disadvantages such as longer processing time, need for repetition of calcination
stages, requirement of very high temperatures for sintering attended by non-uniform and
abnormal grain growth and remnant porosity.