The single crystals of tetra glycine barium chloride (TGBC), a semi-organic material, were grown by the solvent evaporation technique from an aqueous solution of glycine and barium chloride at ambient temperature. Good optical quality single crystals of size 11 x 13 x 7 mm(3) were grown in a period of 2 weeks. Powder X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Fourier transform infrared transmission (FTIR) have confirmed the formation of the new crystal. The grown crystals were characterized by single-crystal XRD analysis to study the crystal structure. The crystalline perfection was evaluated by high-resolution X-ray diffractometry (HRXRD). From this analysis we found that the quality of the crystal was quite good. The full-width at half-maximum (FWHM) of the diffraction curves is 8.5 arcsec, which is very close to that expected from the plane wave dynamical theory of XRD showing that the crystalline perfection is excellent. UV-Vis-NIR spectrum was recorded to study the optical transparency of the grown crystals. Thermal properties of the crystal have been investigated using thermo gravimetric (TG), differential thermal analysis (DTA). The mechanical strength of the crystal is estimated by Vicker's hardness test. (C) 2008 Published by Elsevier B.V.