Aryl acetates when heated with alkyl halide in DMSO in the presence of powdered KOH undergo alkylation giving aryl ethers in high yields. Several hexasubstituted tricycloquinazoline and hexasubstituted triphenylene discotic liquid crystals were prepared conveniently from their acetates. Though better direct synthetic methods are available for the synthesis of alkoxy triphenylenes, this method is more efficacious in the case of tricycloquinazoline derivatives and results in several-fold increase in yield.