The incorporation of carbon nanotube-grafted carbon fibers (CNT-CF) into polymer matrices provides highly enhanced physical properties to the materials. They could be ideal candidates to be integrated into multifunctional composites applications in several industries. However, in order to take advantage of carbon nano tubes (CNTs), it is essential to keep all the CNTs on the surface of fibers during their implementation phase in the composite manufacturing process. Besides, some unresolved safety issues remain during the integration phase of such hybrid forms into polymer matrices. This research is making an attempt to develop an effective plasma surface treatment method either to keep the maximum possible amount of CNTs on the fibers and to modify the surface properties of CNT-CF which is highly necessary prior to the composite fabrication. In order to provide better understanding of the modified structures in a domain ranging from microscopic to atomic scales, several characterization studies were realized by X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (chemical structure) and Scanning Electron Microscopy (microstructure). This research is expected to provide valuable information for further studies to develop hybrid composites where multifunctionality is the main concern. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.