A major expert in the field of organic and organoelemental chemistry. He developed the fundamentals of modern chemistry of carbenes and their analogues, in particular, developed methods for creating and stabilizing these short-lived molecules, studied their structure and basic properties, investigated the reactivity and transformation mechanisms, discovered a number of new reactions and obtained previously unknown compounds, including the first stable germacyclopropene with pseudo-aromatic properties.
He conducted a series of studies in the field of chemistry of diazo compounds, cyclopropanes and cyclopropenes. In particular, he carried out a detailed study of the cyclopropanation of mono- and multi-limit compounds under the action of diazo compounds in the presence of transition metal complexes. On the basis of these studies, further methods were proposed for the synthesis of derivatives of cyclopropane and cyclopropene, as well as polycyclic hydrocarbons. Together with other specialists, he developed technological methods for producing high-energy polycyclic hydrocarbons with unique physicochemical characteristics. In particular, the production of cyclin was created - a highly efficient synthetic fuel for rocket and space technology used in the products of the Luna, Venus series and others.
In the laboratory of O. M. Nefedov, an original method was developed for introducing fluorine into the aromatic core, based on the cycloaddition of fluorhydrocarbenes and polyfluoroolefins to unsaturated hydrocarbons followed by thermal isomerization of fluorine-containing cyclopropanes and cyclobutanes. This method made relatively easy to access a whole class of chemical compounds: mono- and polyfluoro-aromatic compounds, including those key to a number of drugs.