The hitherto unreported 2,4,6-pyridinetricarboxylic acid chloride (PTC) was used with/without trimesoyl chloride (TMC) in the interfacial polymerization reaction with meta-phenylene diamine (MPD) to produce a salt-rejecting polyamide coating over polysulphone support. Besides exhibiting higher reactivity towards MPD, the resultant thin film composite (TFC) membrane showed a lower tendency towards bacterial attachment in comparison to the membrane prepared with TMC alone. The best results were obtained with 2:3-1:1 M ratio of PTC to TMC, in as much as the flux was also enhanced and the salt rejection efficiency remained almost unaffected. The membranes were characterized by ATR-IR spectroscopy, elemental analysis, SEM, AFM, contact angle and zeta potential measurements. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.