This study deals with the potential and limitations of hydrophilic polyamides as stabilization layer material to improve the lifetime of supported liquid membranes. The polyamides are synthesized by the interfacial polymerization technique at the feed side of the supported liquid membrane. These layers show a high permeability for small ions, such as nitrate, sodium and silver, but a very low permeability for larger and bivalent ions, such as copper and zinc. Polyamide layers with acceptable permeabilities for bivalent cations could not be synthesized. Therefore, these polyamides are not the appropriate polymers to stabilize supported liquid membranes transporting bivalent cations.