It is a polyurethane and Baylis-Hillman reaction catalyst, complexing ligand and Lewis base.[2] It is used to regulate the reaction rate in Flexplay time-limited DVDs by adjusting pH. Antioxidants, like DABCO, are used to improve the lifetime of dyes. This makes DABCO useful in dye lasers and in mounting samples for fluorescence microscopy (when used with glycerol and PBS).[3] DABCO can also be used to demethylate quaternary ammonium salts by heating in N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF).