1,2,3,4-butanetetracarboxylic acid (BTCA) with titanium dioxide as a catalyst, was used to crosslink cotton fibers for the purpose of enhancing wrinkle recovery angle (WRA). To enhance the BTCA treatment with TiO2, surface modification of cotton fiber is required; atmospheric pressure plasma jet pretreatment was used in experiments reported in this article. In this study, optimum conditions for plasma pretreatment were analyzed using orthogonal array testing strategy (OATS) technique, on the basis of WRAs achieved after BTCA treatment with and without TiO2 as catalyst. It was found that (i) longer duration of plasma pretreatment provides enough time for the substrate to be impacted by the concentrated active species produced in plasma gas and therefore, modifies the material surface effectively and offers the best balance between enhancement of WRA and minimization of fiber damage, (ii) high oxygen flow rate producing a severe etching effect that alters the material's surface characteristics. However, when concentration of O2 increased during the plasma pretreatment, the active species might react with the oxygen also, besides the cotton surface, and (iii) when the distance between the plasma jet nozzle and the substrate surface is too large, plasma gas from the nozzle is unable to hit the fabric surface, which means no surface modification is achieved. As a result, plasma treatment with 2 mm/s treatment speed, 0.1 L/min oxygen flow rate, and 2 mm jet-to-substrate distance was the most effective plasma pretreatment. (C) 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2012