Single crystals of potassium acid phthalate (KAP), a semi-organic compound, have been grown at an average growth rate of 4 mm/day from aqueous solution by using the uniaxial crystal growth method of Sankaranarayanan-Ramasamy (SR). Transparent, cylindrical KAP crystal of size 70mm length and 15 mm diameter was grown. The grown crystals were characterized by etching and UV-vis NIR analysis. HRXRD analysis indicates that the crystalline perfection of SR method-grown KAP is good. The KAP crystals grown by SR method have 9% higher transmittance than conventional method-grown crystal. The microhardness test was carried out on the (0 1 0) face and a load-dependent hardness was observed. TG-DTA evaluated the thermal properties of the grown crystal. KAP was found to be thermally stable up to 290 degrees C. The dielectric constant and dielectric loss of the crystal were studied as function of frequency and temperature. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.