Reverse osmosis (RO) polyamide (PA) membrane integrity loss, performance degradation, and alteration of surface properties due to exposure to chlorine were evaluated experimentally via a fluorescent marker (uranine) based method, water permeability and salt flux measurements, and surface characterization via XPS, AFM and contact angle measurements. Membrane exposure to chlorine (4-200 mg/L NaOCl solutions) revealed that although membrane surface roughness increased with chlorine exposure intensity (ppm-h), surface hydrophilicity increased as inferred by the decline (up to 5.2-9.6%) of the surface energy of hydration. Comparative analysis of marker transport for membranes that have undergone chlorine exposure of 125-2000 ppm-h demonstrated that the membrane marker permeability coefficient (B) increased by up to a factor of similar to 5 relative to the intact membrane. While the severity of membrane integrity loss/performance degradation correlated to a reasonable degree with ppm-h of chlorine exposure, the severity of membrane integrity loss, at the same chlorine ppm-h, was greater for higher exposure concentration. Membrane integrity loss, over the same exposure levels, was quantified by an equivalent cylindrical breach that was in the range of about 14-40 mu m, increasing in size with the intensity of chlorine exposure. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.