The sol-gel-hydrothermal processing of K0.5Bi0.5TiO3 (KBT) nanowires as well as their sintering behavior at 1000-1100 degrees C were investigated. The morphological analyses indicated that sol-gel-hydrothermal route led to the formation of KBT nanowires with diameters of 4 nm and lengths of 100 nm at low processing temperature of 200 degrees C with KOH concentration of 6 M. It is believed that the gel precursor and hydrothermal environment play an important role in the formation of the nanowires. The KBT ceramics with a relative density of more than 95% can be successfully fabricated from the high quality KBT nanowires even by a conventional sintering process. The KBT ceramics sintered at 1050 degrees C showed typical characteristics of relaxor ferroelectrics, and the dielectric properties were better than that prepared by all other methods reported previously. (C) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.