Effect of different MgO/Al2O3 ratios on microstructural densification, sintering process and mechanical property of MgAl2O4 materials

The tuning of the properties of MgAl2O4-based materials has aroused great attention in the field of engineering technology. Along these lines, magnesia and alumina were used as raw materials to prepare spinel by the solid-phase sintering method at 1500–1600 °C. Particularly, the impacts of the different MgO/Al2O3 molar ratios on the microstructural densification, sintering process and mechanical property of the fabricated materials were systematically studied. The results showed that the stoichiometric spinel with the highest concentration of ion diffusion possessed the best densification. And the magnesium-rich spinel displayed the better densification following with the formation of solid-solution, while the aluminum-rich spinel exhibited the worst ability in forming the solid-solution. Moreover, the different molar ratios changed the microstructure of the spinel, which induced the optimal sintering temperature of stoichiometric spinel to be at least 50 °C below that of the others. Specifically, in stoichiometric spinel, spinel grains grew up and formed obvious structure, which made the sintering process arrive at the end point and made the performance reach the best. Specifically, the flexural strength was 112.62 MPa and apparent porosity was 0.44%. However, no grown or developed spinel grains were observed for magnesium-rich/aluminum-rich spinels, which delayed the sintering process.