Plasma grafting is employed to prepare alkaline anion-exchange membranes in this study. The attenuated total reflection Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and thermo gravimetric analysis demonstrate that the benzyltrimethylammonium cationic groups are successfully introduced into the polyvinyl chloride matrix via plasma grafting, quaternization and alkalization. The plasma-grafted alkaline anion-exchange membrane exhibits a satisfactory ionic exchange capacity (1.01 mmol g(-1)), thermal stability, mechanical property, ionic conductivity (0.0145 S cm(-1)) and methanol permeability (9.59 x 10(-12) m(2) s(-1)) suggesting a great potential for application in direct alcohol fuel cells. The open circuit voltage of air-breathing ADAFC using plasma-grafted alkaline anion-exchange membrane is 0.796 V with 1 M EtOH solution at ambient temperature. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.