Thin film composite (TFC) hollow fiber nanofiltration (NF) membranes were fabricated via interfacial polymerization, with mixed diamines of piperazine (PIP) and 2,2'-bis(1-hydroxyl-1-trifluoromethyl-2,2,2-triflutoethyl)-4,4'-methylenedianiline (BHTTM) as water phase and trimesoyl chloride (TMC) as organic phase. Fabricated membranes were characterized for ATR-FTIR, SEM, AFM, and water contact angle. Formation conditions of the selective polyamide layer have been optimized for a good NF membrane performance. The pure water flux of NF membrane prepared under optimized conditions was 31.2 L.m(-2).h(-1) and the rejection for Na2SO4 was 99.7% at 6 bar. The rejections of NF membranes for different salts followed the order: Na2SO4>MgSO4>NaCl>MgCl2. The molecular weight cut-off of NF membrane was around 300 Da. The performance of NF membranes was stable during a 7-day filtration process for rejecting different species ions including heavy metal ferric ion (FeCl3 and Fe-2(SO4)(3)) and oxyanions (SO42- and HPO42-), in addition to different inorganic salts. Also, the NF membranes exhibited chlorine tolerant property. This work demonstrates the potential of PES outer-selective TFC hollow fiber membranes for desalination or water softening process, provides database to fabricate suitable NF membranes for long-term salts removal and raise a simple technique to form a thin chlorine-tolerant polyamide layer. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.