After two years of post-doctoral research with Merle Battiste at the University of Florida, where he worked on small ring chemistry, Halton was appointed as a faculty member in the Department of Chemistry at Victoria University of Wellington in 1968, eventually rising to become a full professor. When he retired in 2004, he was conferred the title of professor emeritus.
Haltons research was centred on the synthesis and investigation of highly strained and fused aromatic compounds and their unstable cyclopropanated derivatives, known as cycloproparenes, which included highly strained didehydrobenzenes and some exceptionally fluorescent compounds. in 1987, Halton was conferred with the degree of Doctor of Science by Victoria University of Wellington, on the basis of his submission of 57 papers, collectively titled Studies of some strained organic molecules', published between 1971 and 1987.
Halton was active in the New Zealand Institute of Chemistry (NZIC), serving as chair of the Wellington branch, editor of Chemistry in New Zealand between 2002 and 2012, and  president of the NZIC from 1986 to 1987. He represented New Zealand on the organising committee of Pacifichem, the international chemical congress of Pacific basin societies, for 18 years.