A chemical reaction that he pioneered, known as the Kurnakov test, is still used to differentiate cis from trans isomers of divalent platinum and is his best-known contribution to coordination chemistry.

He attended a high school at Nizhny Novgorod and later studied at the Mining Institute in St. Petersburg.

Distantly related to organic chemist Vladimir Markovnikov, he made an early choice of a chemistry career, setting up a home laboratory at 14.

[citation needed] During a trip to France, Germany and Austria, Kurnakov studied salt manufacturing in several locations.

[2][3] In 1902 he became professor at the Saint Petersburg Polytechnic Institute, which he established together with Dmitri Mendeleev and Nikolai Menshutkin.