A compound of the present invention is a triazine compound of the general formula: ##STR1## Ar, Ar' and Ar" are aromatic moieties which are conjugated to the triazine core and are the same or different. Each of R.sup.1, R.sup.1 ', R.sup.1 " to R.sup.n, R.sup.n ', R.sup.n ", which may be the same or different, is an elongated flexible, at least partly aliphatic chain such as to impart liquid-crystalline or columnar crystalline properties to the compound or its mixtures. --(R.sup.1, . . . , R.sup.n), --(R.sup.1 ', . . . , R.sup.n ') and --(R.sup.1 ", . . . , R.sup.n ") indicate that there are up to n, n' and n" substituent groups R on respective Ar, Ar', Ar" moieties, where n, n' and n" are integers which do not exceed a number of available substituent positions on the respective Ar, Ar', Ar" moieties.