Polyketone is a thermoplastic polymer known for its strong mechanical properties and chemical resistance. Such superiorities make it difficult to process and chemically modify for further functionalizations and applications. In this work, we introduce a novel method for functionalizing the alpha carbon of polyketone. We succeeded to attach allyl groups to the backbone of polyketone by a heterogeneous reaction between polyketone enolate and allyl bromide. Allylated polyketone is not soluble in common solvents. Since we started with a membrane of polyketone, there is no need to cast again. Further functionalization is possible through pending allyl groups via alkene addition reactions and ionic or radicalic polymerization. FTIR, elemental analysis, solid NMR, FT-Raman, SEM and XPS methods were employed to confirm the elemental composition, molecular structure and morphology. In addition, X-ray diffractometer (XRD), UVeVisible spectroscopy and thermal analysis were used to investigate the crystal structure, physical and electronic properties. (c) 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.