Monomers of (tetrazol-5-yl)-acetic acid (TAA) were obtained by sublimation of the crystalline compound and the resulting vapors were isolated in cryogenic nitrogen matrices at 13 K. The conformational and tautomeric composition of TAA in the matrix was characterized by infrared spectroscopy and vibrational calculations carried out at the B3LYP/6-311++G(d,p) level. TAA may adopt two tautomeric modifications, 1H- and 2H-, depending on the position of the annular hydrogen atom. Two-dimensional potential energy surfaces (PESs) of TAA were theoretically calculated at the MP2/6-311++G(d,p) level, for each tautomer. Four and six symmetry-unique minima were located on these PESs, for 1H- and 2H-TAA, respectively. The energetics of the detected minima was subsequently refined by calculations at the QCISD level. Two 1H- and three 2H-conformers fall within the 0-8 kJ mol(-1) energy range and should be appreciably populated at the sublimation temperature (∼330 K). Observation of only one conformer for each tautomer (1ccc and 2pcc) is explained in terms of calculated barriers to conformational rearrangements. All conformers with the cis O=COH moiety are separated by low barriers (less than 10 kJ mol(-1)) and collapse to the most stable 1ccc (1H-) and 2pcc (2H-) forms during deposition of the matrix. On the trans O=COH surfaces, the relative energies are very high (between 12 and 27 kJ mol(-1)). The trans forms are not thermally populated at the sublimation conditions and were not detected in matrices. One high-energy form in each tautomer, 1cct (1H-) and 2pct (2H-), was found to differ from the most stable form only by rotation of the OH group and separated from other forms by high barriers. This opened a perspective for their stabilization in a matrix. 1cct and 2pct were generated in the matrices selectively by means of narrow-band near-infrared (NIR) irradiations of the samples at 6920 and 6937 cm(-1), where the first OH stretching overtone vibrations of 1ccc and 2pcc occur. The reverse transformations could be induced by irradiations at 7010 and 7030 cm(-1), transforming 1cct and 2pct back to 1ccc and 2pcc, also selectively. Besides the NIR-induced transformations, the photogenerated 1cct and 2pct forms also decay in N2 matrices back to 1ccc and 2pcc spontaneously, with characteristic decay times of hours (1H) and tens of minutes (2H). The decay mechanism is rationalized in terms of the proton tunneling. In crystals, TAA exists exclusively as 1H-tautomer. By contrast, the tautomeric composition of the matrix-isolated monomers was found to consist of both 1H- and 2H-tautomers, in comparable amounts. A mechanistic discussion of the tautomerization process occurring during sublimation, accounting also for the observed minor decomposition of TAA leading to CO2 and 5-methyl-tetrazole, is proposed.