Often used as a common solvent for chemical reations and utilized widely in industry as a reagent, N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF) has played an important role in organic synthesis for a long time. Numerous highly useful articles and reviews discussing its utilizations have been published. With a focus on the performance of DMF as a multipurpose precursor for various units in numerous reactions, this Minireview summarizes recent developments in the employment of DMF in the fields of formylation, aminocarbonylation, amination, amidation, and cyanation, as well as its reaction with arynes.

An iridium-catalyzed azide-alkyne cycloaddition reaction (IrAAC) of electron-rich internal alkynes is described. It is the first efficient intermolecular AAC of internal thioalkynes. The reaction exhibits remarkable features, such as high efficiency and regioselectivity, mild reaction conditions, easy operation, and excellent compatibility with air and a broad spectrum of organic and aqueous solvents. It complements the well-known CuAAC and RuAAC click reactions.

Pd doles it out: A palladium‐catalyzed approach to indoles using the title reaction was achieved (see scheme). The oxidant used in this catalytic cycle was O2. Both N‐nonsubstituted and N‐alkyl monosubstituted anilines can be successfully transformed into the corresponding indoles by this method.

This paper describes the direct cyanation of indoles and benzofurans employing N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF) as both reagent and solvent. Isotopic labeling experiments indicated that both the N and the C of the cyano group derived from DMF. This transformation offers an alternative method for preparing aryl nitriles, though it is currently limited in scope to indoles and benzofurans.