Anna Fedorovna Volkova holds the title of being the first Russian female chemist to publish her research. Volkova had her first research experience at the St. Petersburg Institute of Agriculture and Forestry. There, she worked with chemist and agronomist Aleksandr Engel’gardt, who was one of the founders of the first Russian-language chemical journal.
When Volkova joined him, Engel’gardt was investigating the structure and properties of arylsulfonic acids and their derivatives. In order to help this investigation, Volkova wrote two papers on toluenesulfonic acids and their amides. These papers were published in Zeitschrift für Chemie in 1870, making it the first reported chemical research by a woman in a modern chemical laboratory. Volkova was subsequently invited to join the Russian Chemical Society.
Volkova next studied the synthesis of aromatic amides, particularly sulfonic acid amides. Her most well-known achievement was her 1870 preparation of the amide of o-toluenesulfonic acid. This became a key intermediate in the manufacture of saccharine, which is an artificial sweetener with about 300-400 times the sweetness of sucrose.
Next, from 1870-1873, Volkova investigated numerous reactions of o- and p-toluenesulfonic acids and their chlorides. She also prepared and studied the properties of multiple novel acid amides.
Volkova ultimately presented two papers at the Third Congress of Russian naturalists, which took place at Kiev in 1871. She was elected chair of one of the chemistry sessions there. Additionally, compounds synthesized by Volkova were selected to be exhibited at the World Industrial Exhibition in London in 1876.