Micropollutant rejection of annealed polyelectrolyte multilayer based nanofiltration membranes for treatment of conventionally-treated municipal wastewater

•Thermal/salt annealing of PEM-based nanofiltration membranes is studied in terms of MP removal.•PEMs become less hydrated by thermal annealing, and more hydrated with salt annealing.•No improved performance is observed for thermally-annealed membranes.•Enhanced MP rejection is observed for salt-annealed membranes, while keeping low ion retention.•The fouled membrane could be easily cleaned by a sacrificial layer approach, without shear forces.