Nowadays, the most promising technology to desalinate seawater is reverse osmosis (RO), which is experiencing significant growth. Over the past few decades remarkable advances have been made in the preparation of RO membranes from different materials. In addition to ongoing research into conventional polymeric RO membrane materials, nanotechnology has opened the way to produce nano-enhanced membranes (NEMs), i.e. membrane functionalized with discrete nanoparticles or nanotubes. In the present paper, after a brief review of the historical development of commercial successful RO membrane materials, an overview of the novel NEMs that will shape the actual trends in membrane material R&D is given. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.