Large, 10 cm-size, single crystals of trans-stilbene were grown for the first time from solution by a temperature reduction technique. Their scintillation performance for fast neutron detection depended on the purity of the initial starting material. A light-yield-inhibitor-free starting material was specially synthesized and crystals from this material were compared to those grown from commercially available powders of trans-stilbene. The use of pure material made possible the growth of the large size crystals (> 400 g) with excellent neutron-gamma discrimination performance, which are needed for use as a radiation detection material. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.