The poor chlorine-resistant performance of the aromatic polyamide nanofiltration/reverse osmosis (NF/RO) membrane leads to short service life of the membrane and increased operation cost of the membrane system. Therefore

significant amount of work has been devoted to improving NF/RO membrane chlorine resistance. This paper reviews the reports on novel NF/RO membranes having superior chlorine resistance in recent years. The chlorination and degradation mechanism of aromatic polyamides was elaborated and the methods of preparing chlorine resistant composite membranes

including developing of new membrane fabrication process

exploring of new membrane materials

modification of traditional monomers

grafting and coating of current membrane surface

were summarized. By comparing the four different methods

the reports on chlorine resistant composite membranes were introduced and analyzed and the challenges and future prospects of the chlorine resistant NF/RO composite membranes were discussed as well.