Volkova was the first chemist to prepare pure ortho-toluene sulfonic acid, its acyl chloride, and its amide (1870).
In 1870, Volkova published an article where she first described the production of pure ortho-toluene sulfonic acid, its acyl chloride and amide; later, her discovery of the acyl chloride and amide was used as the basis for the production of saccharine.
[3] Between 1870 and 1873, Volkova published approximately two dozen articles in the Russian Chemical Society journal on the amides of aromatic sulfonic acids and some of their derivatives.
[4] [5] In 1871, Volkova was the chair of a chemistry session and presented two papers at the Third Congress of Russian Naturalists in Kyiv.
Despite a very short career, ended by poverty-related illness and premature death in 1876, Volkova carried out a remarkable amount of synthetic work and was highly regarded by scientific peers.