Epoxide mediated sol-gel synthesis of magnesium ferrite (MgFe2O4) starting from MgCl2 and Fe(NO3)(3) has been carried out and the product has been subjected to various characterizations such as high resolution powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD), SEM, TEM and HR-TEM with EDX analysis, SAED measurements, FTIR, Raman and UV-visible spectroscopy techniques. Cubic spinel structure emerged on calcining the xerogel (for just 2 h) at temperatures as low as 500 degrees C with an average crystallite size of 8 nm. Heating xerogel at higher temperatures (700 and 900 degrees C for the same duration) yielded products with average crystallite size of 27 and 41 nm, respectively. The existence of Mg2+, Fe2+ and Fe3+ in tetrahedral and octahedral sites of the spinel structure have been evidenced from the presence of bands at 211, 322, 470, 541 and 701 cm(-1) in the Raman spectrum of the sample. Optical band gap of 1.94 eV has been deduced from UV-visible spectroscopic analysis. MgFe2O4 (obtained at 900 degrees C) showed a typical super paramagnetic behavior with a saturation magnetization of 22.021 emu/g at room temperature. It showed BET surface area of 21.28 m(2)/g with an average pore size of 12.19 nm. It was demonstrated to be an efficient catalyst for the oxidation of Xylenol Orange (XO) dye and the reduction of p-nitrophenol to p-aminophenol. (C) 2016 The Society of Powder Technology Japan. Published by Elsevier B. V. and The Society of Powder Technology Japan. All rights reserved.