Ultrafiltration polyethersulfone membranes were modified covalently by chemical reduction of aryl diazonium salts. Functionalizations were performed with four aryl diazonium salts bearing different functional groups (4-benzyltriphenylphosphonium diazonium, 4-nitrophenyl diazonium, 4-benzonitrile diazonium and 4-phenylacetic acid diazonium) so as to demonstrate the versatility of the method. The efficiency of the different functionalizations was checked with various characterization techniques. Attenuated total reflectance-Fourier transform infra red spectroscopy revealed the presence of 4-nitrophenyl, 4-benzonitrile and 4-phenylacetic acid groups at the surface of the different modified membranes but no characteristic vibration band was detected on the surface of the membrane modified with 4-benzyltriphenylphosphonium diazonium. The presence of 4-benzyltriphenylphosphonium, however, could be demonstrated by both Energy Dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (detection of the K alpha ray of phosphorous at 2.015 keV) and streaming current measurements (shift of the membrane isoelectric point). Finally, dead-end filtration of an antibiotic (tylosin) was carried out with the unmodified membrane and the membrane modified by 4-benzyltriphenyl-phosphonium diazonium. Experiments revealed that the transport properties of the grafted membrane were significantly modified, with a significant increase in rejection mainly due to electrostatic repulsions between the surface of the modified membrane and tylosin. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.