In this paper, the effects of air dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) plasma treatment time on surface properties of poly(p-phenylene benzobisoxazole) (PBO) fiber were investigated. The surface characteristics of PBO fiber before and after the plasma treatments were analyzed by dynamic contact angle (DCA) analysis, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), atomic force microscopy (AFM) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). DCA measurements indicated that the surface wettability of PBO fiber was improved significantly by increasing the fiber surface free energy via air DBD plasma treatments. The results were confirmed by the improvement of adhesion of a kind of thermoplastic resin to PBO fiber which was observed by SEM, showing that more resin was adhering evenly to the fiber surface. AFM measurement revealed that the surface topography of PBO fiber became more complicated and the surface roughness was greatly enhanced after the plasma treatments, and XPS analysis showed that some new polar groups (e. g. -O-C=O) were introduced on plasma treated PBO fiber surface. The results of this study also showed that the surface properties of PBO fiber changed with the elongation of plasma treatment time. (C) 2011 Elsevier B. V. All rights reserved.