Triphenylphosphine is a fundamental raw material for rhodium-phosphine complex catalysts and has wide applications in the domestic petrochemical industry. It is also used in the pharmaceutical industry, organic synthesis, and analytical fields. Triphenylphosphine can also be used as a brightening agent in dye processes, an antioxidant in polymer polymerization and color film development, a stabilizer in polyepoxidation, and as an analytical reagent.

Used in organic synthesis, as a polymerization initiator, a raw material for the antibiotic clindamycin, and a standard sample for the determination of phosphorus in organic trace analysis.

Used in the preparation of palladium, iridium, rhodium, nickel, and other complex catalysts; Wfttig reagent; deoxygenation (N-pyridine oxide, nitrosobenzene, hydroperoxide) of triphenylphosphine dihalides; desulfurization; and debromination. It can also convert α-bromonitro compounds into nitriles. It can react with aliphatic diazo compounds to synthesize α-ketoaldehydes and β-keto acids. It can also be used for Beckmann rearrangements, dequaternization of pyridine ring salts, and in some syntheses in combination with bromine iodine, carbon tetrachloride (bromide), and N-butadiene imine bromide.

Triphenylphosphine is a fairly common reducing agent, and in most cases, the reaction is driven by the formation of triphenylphosphine oxide (a thermodynamically favorable reaction). Additionally, triphenylphosphine is widely used as a ligand for metal catalysts.