Has a sol-gel been made before by burning a metal alloy?

[Justonium]

Today I burned an alloy of magnesium and zinc I had made, and to my surprise, little blobs of oxide grew on it as it burned, and started floating away in the wind. It burned much less violently than pure magnesium metal, just glowing bright red-orange and making the blobs (opposed to making the standard powder and wispy fumes seen when burning pure magnesium). I saved some of the white oxide material, and when I look at it, it shows slightly bluish through the white, just like aerogel does. When I held it up so that it was illuminated by the ceiling light from behind, it appeared to glow orange. It is very light, and has such a weak structure that it can be compressed by the slightest touch. Does anybody know where I can find any information on growing sol-gels by burning metals? I assume I'm not the first to do this.

Edited September 30, 2009 by Justonium
was unclear