AbstractBlends of a styrene–maleic anhydride copolymer (SMA) with polyethlene (PE) or polyethylene melt grafted with tertiary (PE‐g‐DMAEMA) or secondary (PE‐g‐tBAEMA) amino methacrylate were prepared by blending in a batch melt mixer. The morphology of these blends at various compositions was examined with a scanning electron microscope (SEM) and related to their tensile and impact properties. The SMA/PE blends are found to have the typical coarse morphology of incompatible blends and poor mechanical properties, while their reactive conterparts, SMA/PE‐g‐DMAEMA or SMA/PE‐g‐tBAEMA blends, show finer morphology and modestly improved tensile and impact strength. This was attributed to chemical interaction of the acidic anhydride and the basic amino groups. The greater improvement in morphology for SMA/PE‐g‐tBAEMA than for SMA/PE‐g‐DMAEMA suggests a stronger interaction between the secondary amino groups and the anhydride groups, possibly with the formation of SMA‐g‐tBAEMA‐g‐PE graft polymer through amide covalent bonds. The amide formation appears to occur at the interfacial region in the blends and is too little to be detected by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectra. However, differential scanning calorimeters (DSC) and the viscosity measurements indicate crystallinity and molecular weight changes for the SMA/PE‐g‐tBAEMA blends, supporting an argument for the formation of SMA‐g‐
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