The following year he was appointed professor at the University of Kyiv where he stayed the rest of his life.

In 1887 discovered the Reformatsky reaction, during which a zinc organic compound is the key component.

The use of zinc in organic reactions was common at that time, but it was subsequently replaced by the more convenient magnesium.

This was not possible for the reaction of α-chloro acids with ketones, because the magnesium based Grignard reagents are more reactive and lead to other products.

This made the Reformatsky reaction a convenient way for the synthesis of β-hydroxy acids which were difficult to obtain with other methods.