Thin film composite (TFC) reverse osmosis (RO) membrane has been dominating commercial desalination process for several decades since its inception in the 1970s. Despite the ability of generating high quality water at promising water permeability, the commercial TFC RO membrane is still susceptible to fouling and chlorine attack which lead to performance instability as a function of operation time. Over the past decade, the prowess of nanomaterials integration in overcoming the drawbacks of conventional TFC membrane has been proven by many research studies and this has led to the significant progress of thin film nanocomposite (TFN) membrane development. However, it remains a great challenge in integrating the inorganic nanomaterials with the polyamide (PA) selective layer of TFN membrane due to the incompatibility between organic and inorganic materials and the uneven distribution of nanomaterials. In view of this, this article intends to critically review various fabrication techniques that have been developed or modified to incorporate nanofillers within or atop PA layer for the development of TFN membranes. In addition, the essential characteristics of nanofillers in order to achieve good integration with PA layer as well as their impacts in improving membrane performance with respect to water flux, rejection, antifouling, antibacterial and chlorine stability are also reviewed. We hope this review article could provide insights to researchers in fabricating defect-free TFN RO membranes for enhanced water desalination.

自1970年代问世以来，薄膜复合材料（TFC）反渗透（RO）膜已在商业脱盐工艺中占主导地位。尽管能够以令人满意的透水性产生高质量的水，但是商用TFC RO膜仍然易于结垢和氯气侵蚀，这导致性能不稳定性作为操作时间的函数。在过去的十年中，许多研究已经证明了纳米材料在克服传统TFC膜缺点方面的综合实力，这导致了薄膜纳米复合材料（TFN）膜开发的重大进展。然而，由于有机和无机材料之间的不相容性以及纳米材料的不均匀分布，将无机纳米材料与TFN膜的聚酰胺（PA）选择性层结合在一起仍然是一个巨大的挑战。有鉴于此，本文旨在批判性地回顾已开发或修改的各种制造技术，以在TFN膜的开发中在PA层内或上掺入纳米填料。另外，还综述了纳米填料的基本特征，以实现与PA层的良好集成，以及它们在改善膜性能方面对水通量，拒水，防污，抗菌和氯稳定性的影响。