Plasma polymerization has gained increasing interest for the deposition of functional plasma-polymerized membranes suitable for a wide range of applications on account of its advantageous features. In this work, acrylic acid/styrene composite plasma polymerized membranes were synthesized by plasma polymerization of a mixture of acrylic acid and styrene monomers in a low-frequency after-glow capacitively coupled plasma (CCP) discharge process. The structure and composition of the plasma polymerized membranes were characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The results showed that the partial pressure ratio between acrylic acid (AA) and styrene (St), applied discharge power and the energy of the extracted particles have considerable effects on the structure and the content of functional groups of the deposited membranes. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.