Acrylamide (AAm) solid state polymerization was induced using argon plasma to improve the pervaporation performance of poly(tetrafluoroethylene) (PTFE) membranes (PTFE-g-PAAm) in aqueous alcohol mixtures. The surface morphology, chemical composition, and hydrophilicity changes in the PTFE and PTFE-g-PAArn membranes were investigated using ATR-FTIR, SEM, AFM, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and water contact angle measurements. The surface hydrophilicity rapidly increased with increasing Ar exposure time, but decreased after longer Ar exposure time because of the degradation in the PTFE-g-PAAm membrane grafted layer. Compared with the hydrophilicity of the pristine PTFE membrane (water contact angle = 120 degrees), the argon plasma induced acrylamide (AAm) solid-state polymerization onto the PTFE surface (water contact angle = 43.3 degrees) and effectively improved the hydrophilicity of the PTFE membrane. This value increases slowly with increasing aging time and then reaches a plateau value of about 50 degrees after 10 days of storage under air. The pervaporation separation performances of the PTFE-gPAAm membranes were higher than that of the pristine PTFE membrane. (c) 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.