A novel reactive hot melt adhesive was prepared by coating an epoxy resin on maleic anhydride grafted polyethylene (MAPE) powder. This adhesive had markedly improved adhesion power compared with pristine MAPE powder, which is normally used as a hot melt adhesive. The generation of an ester linkage by the reaction between the anhydride group of MAPE and the hydroxyl group of epoxy resin, during the bonding operation at 190 degrees C with the pressure of 22 MPa for 30 min, was confirmed from the FTIR spectra. The bond strength was further improved by a small amount of 1-methylimidazole, which accelerated the esterification reaction. When the epoxy resin was coated on hydrated MAPE, in which the anhydride group of MAPE was converted into carboxylic acid group by the reaction with water, the esterification reaction was much faster than that of pristine MAPE, and consequently, the bond strength of the adhesive was much higher than that of pristine MAPE coated with epoxy resin. (C) 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 116:328-33, 2010