It is an aromatic amine that is of commercial interest as a precursor to dyes.

[1] Trimethylaniline is a building block to a variety of bulky ligands.

An example is glyoxal-bis(mesitylimine), a yellow solid that is synthesized by condensation of 2,4,6-trimethylaniline and glyoxal.

The diimine is a useful precursor to popular NHC ligands including IMes.

[2] N-heterocyclic carbenes, as found in 2nd generation Grubbs' catalyst, are also prepared from this compound.