In this paper, acrylic acid was grafted to chitosan in order to change the structure; polymer was obtained from modified chitosan. A series of novel toughened composite NF memebranes were prepared by over-coating the polysulfone ultrafiltration membrane with the polymer of modified chitosan. The chitosan derivatives and the polymer were characterised by infrared spectrophotometer (IR); the structure of the membrane was characrerised by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and atomic force microscope (AFM). The composite NF membrane’s performances were strictly related to the structure of polymer. The rejection of the membrane was 96.3% with flux as high as 386.46 L m-2 h-1 with the 1000 mg/L of NaCl. Tensile strength of membrane increased 46%. The HCl (5%) resistance increased from 20.3 to 36.8h. The NaOH (5%) resistance increased from 18.3 to 31.6h. These results indicated the prepared toughened composite NF memebrane was excellent NF membrane, which had a wide application prospect.