Later, his works on catalysis methods under high pressure made him famous as a chemist; for his reactions he used massive steel autoclaves (sometimes called Ipatieff bombs).

Although Ipatieff's political sympathies were with the Kadet party, after the Bolshevik Revolution, he agreed to work with the new government, as a specialist adviser and inspector for Vesenka.

He was chairman of the Scientific Technical Institute, in 1920-26, but was removed and relegated to the post of vice-chairman of the chemical section of Vesenkha - an early sign that he was coming under suspicion because of his connections with the pre-revolutionary regime.

In June 1930, Ipatieff, fearing that in time he would be victimized, withdrew a small amount of money from his accounts and prepared to attend an industry conference in Munich.

Increasingly, he devoted time to commercial applications of his breakthroughs in fuel chemistry, and worked extensively for UOP LLC (Universal Oil Products).

[3] The American Chemical Society received a large endowment owing to UOP and eventually in turn established an award called the Ipatieff Prize.

Awarded every three years, the Ipatieff Prize honors outstanding experimental work in the field of catalysis or high-pressure chemistry by researchers under the age of 40.