A series of nanofiltration (NF) membranes were prepared with poly(amido-amine) (PAMAM) and trimesoyl chloride (TMC) via in situ interfacial polymerization. The effects of the generation number and concentration of PAMAM on the properties of NF membranes were discussed. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR-ATR)

atomic force microscopy (AFM)

scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and contact angle measurements were employed to characterize the resulting membranes. The nanofiltration performances were evaluated with solutions of NaCl

Na2SO4

MgCl2 and MgSO4

respectively. FTIR-ATR spectra indicated that TMC reacted more sufficiently with the higher generation PAMAM. The salts rejection of the resulting membranes increased with increasing the generation number of PAMAM

which was mainly attributed to the concentration difference of terminal amino-groups among the different generation PAMAM. The MgCl2 (2000 mg/L) rejection of NF-G5 reached 90.3% under the pressure of 0.6 MPa in a cross-flow method measurement. The rejection of MgCl2 increased with increasing concentration of PAMAM. The salts rejection order of NF membranes with high rejection is MgCl2 MgSO4 Na2SO4 NaCl. It was also found that the NF-Gx (x = 4

5

6

7) membranes became more hydrophilic with increasing the generation number of PAMAM.