A novel poly(amide-co-ester) thin film composite (TFC) nanofiltration (NF) membrane was prepared through a two-step interfacial polymerization using monomers of 1,3,5-benzenetricarbonyl trichloride (TMC) and D-( +)-glucose (G) on the ethylenediamine-crosslinked PEI (C-PEI) support membrane. The optimal poly(amide-co-ester) composite NF membrane, NF-2G, shows the flux of 42.5 L m(-2) h(-1) and the rejection of 93.8% toward glucose at the operation pressure of 1.0 MPa. Characterized by DBES, ATR-FTIR, NMR, XPS, SEM, AFM, etc., it is indicated that the interfacial polymerization occurs among TMC, G monomer and the terminal amine groups on the C-PEI support to generate the poly(amide-co-ester) skin layers with crosslinked structure as well as enhanced diffusion property. Such crosslinked poly(amideco-ester) top layers make the flux increased by 4 times. The antifouling evaluation indicates that NF-2G membrane shows the water recovery ratio of 99.4% after 25 h filtration of 100 ppm NaAlg, suggesting the superior antifouling property due to the highly hydrophilic surface and smooth surface. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.