Heat Conduction of Ceramic Materials Based on MgAl2O4 and ZnAl2O4

Optically transparent samples of ceramic materials based on the magnesium aluminate and zinc aluminate spinels of density close to the theoretically attainable one have been obtained, and their heat conductivity was measured in the temperature range 50–300 K. It is shown that the heat conductivities of these ceramic materials at room temperature are close and fall within the range 17–18 W/(m·K). At a cryogenic temperature (T = 50 K), the heat conductivity of the ceramic materials based on the zinc aluminate spinel (180 W/(m·K)) is much higher than the heat conductivity of the ceramic materials based on the magnesium aluminate spinel (122 W/(m·K)). The absolute heat conductivities of the ceramic materials based on the indicated spinels are dependent on the sintering additives used in their production.