A facile and commercially applicable method to modify the polarity of ethylene-propylene-diene rubber (EPDM) by reacting with simple metal salts was described. Firstly, a brominated EPDM was produced by reacting EPDM solution in hexane that was sampled directly from commercial plant with N-bromosuccinimide, and then the brominated EPDM was further reacted with sodium acetate or sodium chlorodifluoroacetate in the presence of phase transfer catalyst to yield the functionalized EPDM. The effectiveness of the functionalization method was demonstrated by estimating contact angle, work of adhesion, and lap shear strength after characterizing the polymers by various spectroscopies. (C) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.