Plasma polymerized acrylic acid (AA) coatings were deposited on poly(lactic acid) (PLA) films in various gas atmospheres during the pre-treatment of PLA and the deposition of AA, respectively. Therefore, this work was twofold: the argon pretreated PLA films followed by a deposition in argon were investigated against the mixture of argon and oxygen pretreated ones under the same deposition conditions; the plasma deposition of AA operating in different atmospheres (argon, oxygen and nitrogen) was employed to modify the pretreated PLA in oxygen. Chemical and physical changes on the plasma-treated surfaces were examined using contact angle, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) and attenuated total reflection infrared (ATR-FTIR) analysis. The results showed that the discharge gas can have a significant influence on the chemical composition of the PLA surfaces: oxygen plasmas introduced oxygen-containing groups in company with surface etching in pretreatment and deposition, while argon discharges was able to achieve much better hydrophilic behavior and high retention ratio of poly( acrylic acid) (PAA) coating before and after washing in water. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.