[1] Pivalic acid is also economically recovered as a byproduct from the production of semisynthetic penicillins like ampicillin and amoxycillin.

[citation needed] Pivalic acid is sometimes used as an internal chemical shift standard for NMR spectra of aqueous solutions.

[citation needed] Pivalic acid is employed as co-catalyst in some palladium-catalyzed C-H functionalization reactions.

Common protection methods include treatment of alcohol with pivaloyl chloride (PvCl) in presence of pyridine.

[8] Alternatively, the esters can be prepared using pivaloic anhydride in the presence of Lewis acids such as scandium triflate (Sc(OTf)3).