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Polyethylene (PE) has many excellent material properties (low density, high flexibility, good chemical resistance, etc.), and is widely used in industrial and medical fields. However, the practical applications of PE are sometimes limited due to its poor wettability. In this article, we employ pure nitrogen atmospheric pressure plasma jet (APPJ) and N 2 -H 2 O APPJ to hydrophilize PE surfaces. Wettability, time stability, chemical composition, micromorphology, and mechanical properties of the treated surfaces are investigated by contact angle measurement, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, atomic force microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and electric digital display push-pull machine. The pure nitrogen APPJ can hydrophilize PE surfaces without inducing obvious microstructure changes, and relatively better wettability (water contact angle = 13 ) could thereby be achieved. On the other hand, the N 2 -H 2 O APPJ creates micro/nanoscale pores on the treated hydrophilic surfaces, contributing to the better time stability and lower tensile strength. The results reported here clearly demonstrate the great potential of nitrogen APPJs with different water mixing ratios in controlling surface wettability and microstructures of polymer surfaces.

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