The preparation of pure lithium niobate nanopowders was carried out by a matrix-mediated synthesis approach. Lithium hydroxide and niobium pentachloride were used as precursors. The influence of the chemical environment was studied by adding lithium halide (LiCl or LiBr). After thermal treatment of the precursor mixture at 550 degrees C for 30 min, the morphology of the products was obtained from transmission electron microscopy and dynamic light scattering, whereas the crystallinity and phase purity were characterized by X-ray diffraction and UV-visible and Raman spectroscopies. Our results point out that the chemical environment during lithium niobate formation at 550 degrees C influences the final morphology. Moreover, direct and indirect band-gap energies have been determined from UV-visible spectroscopy. Their values for the direct-band-gap energies range from 3.97 to 4.36 eV with a slight dependence on the Li/Nb ratio, whereas for the indirect-band-gap energies, the value appears to be independent of this ratio and is 3.64 eV. No dependence of the band-gap energies on the average crystallite and nanoparticle sizes is observed.