Schwabs research interests seem to have switched to kinetics under the guidance of Max Bodenstein while at Nernsts Institute of Physical Chemistry in Berlin. Some of the problems on which Schwab worked on his own in this period included the thermal decomposition of methane, chemical reactions taking place during a cold cathode discharge, and the speed of dissolution of gases.
In Würzburg, he continued along a similar line of work studying gas dissolution, the thermal decomposition of ammonia, and the kinetics of photochlorination reactions.