Hydrophilic and chemically reactive porous media was prepared by adsorbing functional polymers at the surface of sintered polyethylene membranes. Modification of the membrane was accomplished by first exposing the membrane to an oxygen glow discharge gas plasma to render electrostatic charge at the membrane surfaces. Cationic polyelectrolyte polyethylenimme (PEI) was adsorbed from solution to the anionically charged surface to form an adsorbed monolayer. The adsorption of a second anionic polyelectrolyte allowed further modification of the membrane surface with a polyelectrolyte bilayer complex. In this paper we probe the effect of polymer structure on the conformation and stability of the adsorbed polyelectrolyte monolayers and bilayers on the modified polyethylene surface. Using the wicking rate of deionized, distilled water through the porous membrane to gauge the interfacial energy of the modified surface, we show that the wicking rate of the multilayer membrane can be controlled by varying the chemistry of the adsorbing polyelectrolytes and their molecular weights. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.