To produce membranes having desired salt rejection and water permeability properties for the reverse osmosis process, their active layers were fabricated from various gylcidyl methacrylate derivatives, i.e., 2,2-bis[3,5-dimethyl,4-(2-hydroxy-3-methacryloyloxy propoxy)phenyl] propane (TM-Bis-GMA), 4-cumylphenoxy glycidyl methacrylate (CP-GMA) and 4-tert-butylphenoxy glycidyl methacrylate (t-BP-GMA), by photopolymerization. Composite membranes prepared from TM-Bis-GMA exhibited better salt rejection and water permeability performance than those prepared by interfacially reacting in-phenylenediamine (MPDA) and trimesoyl chloride (TMC). The crosslinking density of the active layer was controlled by varying the mixing ratio of TM-Bis-GMA containing vinyl moieties at both ends of the molecule and CP-GMA (or t-BP-GMA) containing a vinyl moiety at the end of the molecule. The salt rejection of the membranes was higher than 99% when the active layer was fabricated from the Mixtures containing less than or equal to 10 wt.% of CP-GMA (or t-BP-GMA) and then it rapidly decreased with further increasing CP-GMA (or t-BP-GMA) content. Membranes prepared from TM-Bis-GMA or its mixtures exhibited better chlorine resistance than the membrane prepared from MPDA and TMC. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.