The wettability of high-density polyethylene grafted with methaerylic acid is strongly influenced by the nature of the grafting solvent. Here, the wettability is expressed by the water contact angle and absorbency. The initial (10-s) contact angle of polyethylene (PE) grafted in acetone/water solution decreased rapidly with the extent of grafting at low grafting levels and then remained independent of the grafting level at about 50degrees. When a water droplet was left on the surface for a longer time, its contact angle decreased to a very low value in the period of about 10 min. For the PE samples grafted in dichloromethane, petroleum ether, cyclohexane, and chloroform, there was only a small decrease (10degrees) in the contact angle of water from that observed on pure PE, even when the extent of grafting was very large. The PE films grafted in these organic solvents also took a much longer time than PE films grafted in acetone/water solution to obtain equilibrium water absorbency. The water absorbency of PE films grafted in 30% acetone/water solution was about twice that of PE films grafted in the other solvents at the same extent of grafting. These results suggested that for the solvents other than acetone/water, the grafted layer is partially buried below the surface of PE. (C) 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 42: 263-270, 2004