Intrinsic lifetimes and kinetic stability in media of noble-gas hydrides

Noble-gas hydrides, generally prepared in noble-gas matrices, have fascinating chemical bonding and properties. However, very little is known on the kinetic stability of these compounds, and how it can be affected by different molecular environments and conditions. In this Letter, recent computational and experimental results bearing on this topic are discussed and analyzed. For the important case of HXeOH, there appears to be a gap between the predicted long lifetime for the isolated molecule and much shorter lifetime observed experimentally in a Xe matrix. Understanding of this gap is an important challenge in this field.