The atmospheric chemistry of sulphuryl fluoride, SO<sub>2</sub>F<sub>2</sub>, was investigated in a series of laboratory studies. A competitive rate method, using pulsed laser photolysis (PLP) to generate O(<sup>1</sup>D) coupled to detection of OH by laser induced fluorescence (LIF), was used to determine the overall rate coefficient for the reaction O(<sup>1</sup>D) + SO<sub>2</sub>F<sub>2</sub> → products (R1) of <i>k</i><sub>1</sub> (220–300 K) = (1.3 ± 0.2) × 10<sup>−10</sup> cm<sup>3</sup> molecule<sup>−1</sup> s<sup>−1</sup>. Monitoring the O(<sup>3</sup>P) product (R1a) enabled the contribution (α) of the physical quenching process (in which SO<sub>2</sub>F<sub>2</sub> is not consumed) to be determined as α (225–296 K)=(0.55 ± 0.04). Separate, relative rate measurements at 298 K provided a rate coefficient for reactive loss of O(<sup>1</sup>D), <i>k</i><sub>1b</sub>, of (5.8 ± 0.8) × 10<sup>−11</sup> cm<sup>3</sup> molecule<sup>−1</sup> s<sup>−1</sup> in good agreement with the value calculated from (1−α) × <i>k</i><sub>1</sub>=(5.9 ± 1.0) × 10<sup>−11</sup> cm<sup>3</sup> molecule<sup>−1</sup> s<sup>−1</sup>. Upper limits for the rate coefficients for reaction of SO<sub>2</sub>F<sub>2</sub> with OH (R2, using PLP-LIF), and with O<sub>3</sub> (R3, static reactor) were determined as <i>k</i><sub>2</sub> (294 K)<1 × 10<sup>−15</sup> cm<sup>3</sup> molecule<sup>−1</sup> s<sup>−1</sup> and <i>k</i><sub>3</sub> (294 K)<1 × 10<sup>−23</sup> cm<sup>3</sup> molecule<sup>−1</sup> s<sup>−1</sup>. In experiments using the wetted-wall flow tube technique, no loss of SO<sub>2</sub>F<sub>2</sub> onto aqueous surfaces was observed, allowing an upper limit for the uptake coefficient of γ(pH 2–12)<1 × 10<sup>−7</sup> to be determined. These results indicate that SO<sub>2</sub>F<sub>2</sub> has no significant loss processes in the troposphere, and a very long stratospheric lifetime. Integrated band intensities for SO<sub>2</sub>F<sub>2</sub> infrared absorption features between 6 and 19 μm were obtained, and indicate a significant global warming potential for this molecule. In the course of this work, ambient temperature rate coefficients for the reactions O(<sup>1</sup>D) with several important atmospheric species were determined. The results (in units of 10<sup>−10</sup> cm<sup>3</sup> molecule<sup>−1</sup> s<sup>−1</sup>, <i>k</i><sub>(O<sup>1</sup>D + N<sub>2</sub>)</sub>=(0.33 ± 0.06); <i>k</i><sub>(O<sup>1</sup>D + N<sub>2</sub>O)</sub>=(1.47 ± 0.2) and <i>k</i><sub>(O<sup>1</sup>D + H<sub>2</sub>O)</sub>=(1.94 ± 0.5) were in good agreement with other recent determinations.