Phone: þ48 22 55 26 416, Fax: þ48 22 822 59 96Combustion synthesis is known as a cost-effective technique to produce many novel ceramic nanomaterials such as nitrides, carbides, and intermetallic compounds. Herein, we report an extremely fast chemical transformation of magnesium-magnesium oxalate (Mg/MgC 2 O 4 ) mixtures into solid products containing different nanocarbons and MgO. Despite a wide range of molar ratios of reactants all combustions, carried out in Ar at 1 MPa, were successful. The solid products were chemically purified (leaching of unreacted Mg and MgO) and characterized by XRD, SEM/EDX, TEM, DSC, and Raman spectroscopy. The residue contained mostly layered (circa several nm thick) carbon petal-like nanostructures and carbon-coated MgO.