[2] Upon receiving his Ph.D., Groves began his independent research career as a member of the chemistry faculty at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor in 1969.
Recent efforts have focused on the design of new, biomimetic catalysts and the molecular mechanisms of metal-catalyzed redox processes, the design and assembly of large scale membrane-protein-small molecule constructs, strategies for the assembly of biogenic hard materials, molecular probes of peroxynitrite-mediated protein nitration, pharmaceutical strategies for protection against peroxynitrite-mediated pathologies, and mechanisms by which pathogens acquire metabolic iron from host cells.
The central idea is that hydroxylation proceeds, not by direct insertion of O into a C-H bond, but rather by abstraction of H from the hydrocarbon to generate a reactive metal-hydroxide, which subsequently recombines (or rebounds) with the organic radical.
In 1978, Groves and his collaborators reported the first catalytic alkane hydroxylation and alkene epoxidation catalyzed by a synthetic iron(III) porphyrin complex, Fe(TPP)Cl using an iodosylbenzene (PhIO) oxidant.
In that study, oxidation of cyclohexane with iodosylbenzene catalyzed by Mn(TPP)Cl afforded a 2.5 : 1 mixture of cyclohexanol and cyclohexyl chloride in a total 70% yield.