RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT | REFRACTORY MATERIALS 34 Interceram 1-2 | 2018 www.interceram-review.info Solution Combustion Synthesis of Alumina Spinel and its Characterization S.R. Ghosh 1 , S. Mukherjee 2 , S. Banerjee 1 Abstract: Refractories as liners play an important role in the metallurgical, glassmaking, steel and ceramic industries. Spinel-based magnesium aluminate is an excellent refractory oxide for the production of high temperature materials focusing on emerging science and technology. It offers the attractive combination of physical and chemical properties like high mechanical strength at elevated temperature, a high melting point, high chemical inertness and thermal stability. Normally, this refractory material is prepared by energy-intensive high temperature solid state processing. Is there a way to synthesize Magnesium aluminate spinel over a solution combustion low temperature chemical route? Keywords: alumina spinel, XRD, FTIR, morphology 1. Introduction Refractories as liners play an important role in the metallurgical, glassmaking and ceramic industries [1, 2]. The main problems faced by steel ladle refractories are corrosion by steel slags, liquid metal abrasion, thermal spalling, oxidation of the carbon layer, dete- rioration of strength at high temperatures, and molten steel penetration [3, 4]. The per- Figure 1 DTA/TGA of alumina with a heat rate of 15 K/min (© S. Mukherjee)