The surface of 316 stainless steel has been modified using cold atmospheric plasma (CAP) to increase the surface free energy (by cleaning the and chemically activating the surface)IN preparation for subsequent processes such as painting, coating or adhesive bonding. The analyses carried out, on CAP treated 316 stainless steel surfaces, includes X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), imaging XPS (iXPS), and surface free energy (SFE) analysis using contact angle measurements. The CAP treatment is shown to increase the SFE of as -received 316 stainless steel from similar to 39 mJ m(-1) to >72 mJ m(-1) after a short exposure to the plasma torch. This was found to correlate to a reduction in adventitious carbon, as determined by XPS analysis of the surface. The reduction from similar to 90 at% to similar to 30% and similar to 39 at%, after being plasma treated for 5 min and 15 s respectively, shows that the process is relatively quick at changing the surface. It is suggested that the mechanism that causes the increase in surface free energy is chain scission of the hydrocarbon contamination triggered by free electrons in the plasma plume followed by chemical functionalisation of the metal oxide surface and some of the remaining carbon contamination layer. (C) 2017 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).