Figure 18 presents the C-O stretching vibrational frequencies of the first-row transition-metal monocarbonyl cations, neutrals, and anions in solid neon; similar diagrams have been reported for neutral MCO species in solid argon, but three of the early assignments have been changed by recent work and one new assignment added. The laser-ablation method produces mostly neutral atoms with a few percent cations and electrons for capture to make anions; in contrast, thermal evaporation gives only neutral species. Hence, the very recent neon matrix investigations in our laboratory provide carbonyl cations and anions for comparison to neutrals on a level playing field. Several trends are very interesting. First, for all metals, the C-O stretching frequencies follow the order cations > neutrals > anions with large diagnostic 100-200 cm-1 separations, which is consistent with the magnitude of the metal d to CO pi * donation. Second, for a given charge, there is a general increase in C-O stretching vibrational frequencies with increasing metal atomic number, which demonstrates the expected decrease in the metal to CO pi * donation with increasing metal ionization potential. Some of the structure in this plot arises from the extra stability of the filled and half-filled d shell and from the electron pairing that occurs at the middle of the TM row; the plot resembles the "double-humped" graph found for the variation in properties across a row of transition metals. For the anions, the variation with metal atom is the smallest since all of the metals can easily donate charge to the CO ligand. Third, for the early transition-metal Ti, V, and Cr families, the C-O stretching frequencies decrease when going down the family, but the reverse relationship is observed for the late transition-metal Fe, Co, and Ni families. In most of the present discussion, we have referred to neon matrix frequencies; however, the argon matrix frequencies are complementary, and useful information can be obtained from comparison of the two matrix hosts. In most cases, the neon-to-argon red shift for neutral carbonyls is from 11 to 26 cm-1, but a few (CrCO) lie outside of this range. In the case of FeCO and Fe(CO)2, it appears that neon and argon trap different low-lying electronic states. In general, the carbonyl neutrals and anions have similar shifts but carbonyl cations have larger matrix shifts. For example, the FeCO+ fundamental is at 2123.0 cm-1 in neon and 2081.5 cm-1 in argon, a 42.5 cm-1 shift, which is larger than those found for FeCO- (11.7 cm-1) and FeCO (11.7 cm-1). It is unusual for different low-lying electronic states to be trapped in different matrices, but CUO provides another example. The linear singlet state (1047.3, 872.2 cm-1) is trapped in solid neon, and a calculated 1.2 kcal/mol higher triplet state is trapped in solid argon (852.5, 804.3 cm-1) and stabilized by a specific interaction with argon. The bonding trends are well described by theoretical calculations of vibrational frequencies. Table 5 compares the scale factors (obse...