Wetting behaviour of several plasma sprayed oxide surfaces were characterised using contact angle measurements. Since surfaces contained pores and cracks, the evaluation of wetting angles led only to rough estimation of surface free energies. In order to find out the effect of atmospheric contamination the wetting behaviour of plasma-etched surfaces was followed as a function of time. It was found out that the sample preparation method had great influence on the contact angle of plasma sprayed oxide surfaces. The contact angle of plasma-etched surfaces increased when the surfaces were exposed to air. The probable reason for that was adsorption of low surface free energy contaminants to the sample surfaces. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.