His Nobel Prize work was done in 1983, when he was the first to synthesize a catenane, a complex of two interlocking ring-shaped molecules, which were bonded mechanically rather than chemically.
Det arbejde, som førte til hans nobelpris, blev udført i 1983, hvor han var den første til at syntetisere en catenan, et kompleks bestående af ringeformede molekyler, der sidder inde i hinanden, der var bundet sammen mekanisk frem for kemisk.