ABSTRACT
This chapter covers photochemical studies of alkenes and cycloalkenes isolated in very low temperature matrices, typically solidified noble gases or nitrogen at temperatures of 10-20 K. Under the conditions of such
matrix isolation,
trapped species are prevented from diffusing and are therefore prevented from undergoing bimolecular reactions. As a result, extremely reactive species can be stabilized and investigated by a variety of normal spectroscopic methods, of which IR spectroscopy usually provides the most useful structural information. A brief description of the matrix-isolation technique and an account of its applications in several areas of organic photochemistry are given in a later chapter.
