Nickel bowl-like nanoparticles have first been synthesized by a magnetic self-assembly process stabilized by polyvinyl pyrrolidone (PVP) without any sphere-like materials as templates. A trace of doped bowls can induce liquid crystal (LC) molecules into a perfect planar alignment, attributable to their bowl-like shape and magnetic self-assembly into a 1D structure. It would provide a novel method of establishing LCs alignment by doping special nanostructured materials.