He found new methods for the synthesis of pyrylium salts (Balaban-Nenitzescu-Praill synthesis), of carbenes, triptamine, serotonin, two new syntheses for the indole nucleus, and a new method of polymerisation of ethylene.
Discussions about carbene chemistry with one of the company's most respectable consultants at the time, William von Eggers Doering, then a professor at Yale, led the young Ph.D. graduate from Northwestern University to follow a recent procedure combining both, carbenes and butadiene.