To 5-hydroxy-2-(4-octylphenyl)pyrimidine (5 g, 0.018 mol) were added ethanol (50 ml), octyl iodide (12.6 g, 0.053 mol) and diazabicyclo[5.4.0]undec-7-ene (0.053 mol), followed by refluxing the mixture for 4 hours, dissolving the reaction mixture in toluene, sufficiently washing the solution with 2N-NaOH aqueous solution, further washing it with water, distilling off toluene and recrystallizing the residue from methanol (75 ml) to obtain 5-octyloxy-2-(4-octylphenyl)pyrimidine (5 g). This product exhibited liquid crystalline properties and its phase transition points were as follows: ##STR19##
