Gas-phase lanthanide-SO 2 complexes, Ln(CH 3 SO 2) 3 (SO 2)-, were produced by collision induced dissociation (CID) of Ln(CH 3 SO 2) 4 precursors prepared by electrospray ionization. For all lanthanides except Eu, CID of Ln(CH 3 SO 2) 4 resulted in CH 3 loss to form Ln(CH 3 SO 2) 3 (SO 2)-, which spontaneously react with O 2 to form Ln(CH 3 SO 2) 3 (O 2)-. CID of Eu(CH 3 SO 2) 4 produced only Eu(CH 3 SO 2) 3-, with reduction from Eu(III) to Eu(II). For Ln = Yb and Sm, the Ln(CH 3 SO 2) 4 underwent neutral ligand loss to form Ln(CH 3 SO 2) 3-, which reacted with O 2 to yield Ln(CH 3 SO 2) 3 (O 2)-, recovering the Ln(III) oxidation state. The CID results parallel condensed phase Ln 3+ /Ln 2+ redox chemistry. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations on Ln(CH 3 SO 2) 3 (SO 2)for Ln = La, Yb and Lu reveal that SO 2 acts as a bidentate oxygen bound ligand for doublet ground state La(CH 3 SO 2) 3 (SO 2)and Lu(CH 3 SO 2) 3 (SO 2)-, while the ground state for Yb(CH 3 SO 2) 3 (SO 2)is an open-shell singlet with a monodentate SO 2 ligand. Loss of CH 3 is computed to be much more favorable than neutral ligand loss for La(CH 3 SO 2) 4 and Lu(CH 3 SO 2) 4-, whereas both channels are comparable in energy for Yb(CH 3 SO 2) 4-, in accord with the experiments. DFT results for fragmentation of Cu(CH 3 SO 2) 2 reveal that formation of the organometallic complex, Cu(CH 3 SO 2)(CH 3)-, is energetically most favorable, in agreement with contrasting fragmentation pathways of copper and lanthanide complexes.