This 1975 book shows how and why matrix isolation developed and describes the necessary apparatus.

The matrix isolation (MI) method has now been used for nearly thirty years. During this period it has been actively developed and the range of problems tackled greatly extended. Originally it was used for studies of transient species involv ing vibrational, electronic and ESR spectroscopy. Nowadays the study of transient species forms a comparatively small part of HI work since it has been amply demonstrated that very fruitful information can be obtained of the structure and interactions of stable molecules and their aggregates. In addition to the s~ectroscopic methods mentioned above the MI technique is nowadays a standard method in research based on vibrational relaxation, luminescence, Mossbauer, magnetic circular dichroism, pulsed NMR and photoelectron spectroscopy. The matrix isolation technique affords considerable advantages over more conventional methods in most applications of spectroscopy. Areas where the technique has been widely applied, or shows great potential, include: metal atom chemistry, and its relation to surface chemistry, high temperature inorganic species, transition metal complexes, interstellar species, free radicals and unstable molecules, conformational studies, molecular com plexes, and intermolecular forces.

Matrix-isolation spectroscopy, as a technique for studying unstable species, has had tremendous lasting powers. Since 1954, matrix-isolation has been able to assimilate new technology rather than being replaced by it. The matrix-isolation technique for producing and trapping new chemical species has been applied to an ever increasing range of chemical and physical problems since its inception. The last 12 years have seen a substantial number of new developments and applications of the matrix technique. The chapters in this book describe many of the contributions of matrix-isolation spectroscopy to chemistry and physics in the last decade, and as such predict the continued evolution of this technique over the next decade. Experimental techniques are generally closely related to the development of new apparatus, and each chapter has a section describing innovations in instrumentation such as the closed-cycle cryogenic cooler that has revolutionized the technique. In addition, each chapter describes many of the specialized methods used to prepare, trap and study particular new subject species. The volume will be an indispensable reference source for graduate students and other scientists new to this field, as well as chemists and physicists already involved in applied spectroscopy.