Poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) film was exposed to oxygen plasma glow discharge to produce peroxides on its surface. These peroxides were then used as catalysts for the polymerization of 8-quinolinyl acrylate (QA) to prepare the PET grafted with QA (PET-Q). The surface-modified PET was characterized by attenuated total reflection Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The introduction of QA to the PET surface was confirmed by observing the presence of nitrogen in the XPS survey scan and high-resolution spectra. The amount of QA grafted on to the PET surface as measured by the gravimetric method was about 5.2 mu g cm(-2). The antibacterial activity of the surface-modified PET texture was investigated by using a shake-flask and an inhibition zone test method. After 6 h of shaking, the PET grafted with QA showed the inhibition (91%) of the growth of the gram-positive microorganism, S. aureus. Even after laundering ten times, an effectiveness of the inhibition was found. However, little inhibition was shown with the gram-negative microorganism, K. pneumoniae. (c) 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.