The kinetics and mechanism of cure reaction of DGEBA using a chelate of Ni(II) with diethylenetriamine (dien), Ni(dien)2I2, as a curing agent was studied by DSC.TG curve of the complex curing agent showed mass loss in two region of temperature: 200–320 and 450–550 C. Dynamic DSC measurements showed only one exothermic peak with a maximum about 250 C depending on the heating rate. According to the methods of KAS and Ozawa–Flynn–Wall the values of Ea were 92.5 and 96.2 kJ/mol, respectively. The isoconversional kinetic analysis in whole range of conversion, a = 0.02–0.95, showed small changes in the Ea values in the region of a = 0.04–0.6 and most likely represent some average values (Ea = 110 kJ/mol) between the values of Ea of non-autocatalyzed and autocatalyzed reactions. Using the sole dependence of Ea on a, the time required to reach fully cured materials under isothermal conditions were also predicted and compared with the experimental results.
