The oxidation of aluminium was studied using optical emission spectroscopy (OES) during the evaporation of aluminium in traces of oxygen in a thermal plasma reactor. The ratio of the measured line intensities of Al-O with that of Al follows the exact trend as of that obtained from the corresponding line intensities in X-ray diffraction spectra of the synthesized samples. In this paper the inherent capacity of emission spectroscopy in evaluating the growth processes under plasma induced reactions is presented.