Dedicated to Professor Friedhelm Aubke on the occasion of his 75th birthdayOxy radicals of non-metals such as nitrogen, chlorine, or sulfur play an important part in atmospheric chemistry. They generally form weak complexes with dioxygen. A recent study [1] on the kinetics of formation and the decomposition of the FSO 3 /O 2 complex attracted our interest. The intermediate formed by laser flash photolysis (l = 193 nm) of FSO 2 OF in the presence of O 2 features a strong visible absorption at 450 nm and was claimed to be the chainlike trioxy radical FSO 2 OOO.[1] The oxygenated radical was found to dissociate unimolecularly on a millisecond timescale to yield FSO 3 + O 2 .[1] The short lifetime prevented further spectroscopic investigations. Previously we studied in noble gas matrices O 2 complexes of several oxy radicals such as CF 3 O/O 2 , [2] SF 5 O/O 2 , [3] and ClO 4 /O 2 .[4] However, dioxygen complexes of polyoxy radicals such as FSO 3 have not yet sufficiently been characterized. Herein we report the matrix isolation and a combined UV/Vis/infrared spectroscopic and quantum-chemical characterization of the FSO 3 /O 2 complex. The infrared spectra of the precursor for the synthesis of FSO 3 , the peroxide FSO 2 OOSO 2 F (S 2 O 6 F 2 ), [5,6] isolated in solid argon at 14 K or in neon at 6 K, revealed no impurities, but did show splitting of the bands owing to the presence of several rotamers. Increasing the temperature of the spray-on nozzle during matrix deposition changed the relative intensities of these splittings, and bands associated with the FSO 3 radical, [7] formed by thermal dissociation of S 2 O 6 F 2 according to Equation (1), appear in the IR matrix spectra.S 2 O 6 F 2 is almost completely dissociated at a pyrolysis temperature of 160 8C, as demonstrated in Figure 1 (upper trace). In contrast to previous matrix experiments, [7] much weaker bands of HSO 3 F, H 2 O, CO 2 , HF, and S 2 O 5 F 2 are found in the spectra.The thermolysis products of S 2 O 6 F 2 were trapped in a Ne matrix containing 10 % of O 2 to investigate the reaction of FSO 3 radicals with molecular oxygen. Part of the IR spectrum of this experiment is displayed in Figure 1 (middle trace). It reveals a strong decrease in intensity of all bands attributed to FSO 3 and the appearance of new broad IR bands of the