Polytetrafluoroethylene ( PTFE)films were pre-treated by dielectric barrier discharge in atmospheric pressure with air as carrier gas. And then the hydrophilic sulfonate groups were introduced by the single step grafting method with binary monomer solution of acrylic acid (AAc) and sodium 4-styrenesulfonate (SSS). The effects of binary monomer ratio, reaction solution concentration and polymerization time on the degree of grafting were investigated. The surface chemical change was determined by Fourier transform infrared attenuated total reflection spectroscopy (FTIR-ATR) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Morphological changes on the film surface were described using field emitting scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM). The surface hydrophilicity of the modified film was characterized through water contact angle measurement. It was found that the water contact angle of the film surface reduced significantly when compared with the original one, indicating the introduction of hydrophilic groups and improvement of the surface hydrophilicity. (C) 2008 Elsevier B. V. All rights reserved.