The surface compositions and oxidation states of non-exposed and water exposed plasma sprayed oxide coatings were studied using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Coating materials were TiO2, Al2O3 and Cr2O3 and their mixtures. Water exposures were performed for free standing coating disks at mild electrolyte (1 mmol NaCl solution) at pH 4, 7 and 9. The exposure time was two weeks. It was observed that pure plasma sprayed TiO2 material was chemically stable over whole experiment pH range and only slight surface hydroxylation was observed for this material. In case of plasma sprayed Al2O3 materials the surface O/Al ratio increased considerably during water exposure especially at exposure pH 7. This was probably result of surface conversion to hydrous form. No surface oxidation state changes were observed for this material. The non-exposed Cr2O3 materials contained both Cr(III) and Cr(VI) oxides. The water exposures increased the surface oxygen and Cr(VI) contents at the expense of Cr(III). The most probable reason for that was the dissolution of surface Cr(VI) oxide phase during water exposures and the (re) adsorption of dissolved Cr(VI) species back to the surface. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.