A deep eutectic solvent (DES) based on choline chloride and urea (ChCI-U) was used to prepare epoxy compositions based on low molecular weight diglycidyl ether of bisphenol A (DGEBA) resin. Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, rheometry and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) were, then, used to investigate the curing mechanism of epoxy mixtures as a function of the DES content. The results confirmed that the eutectic mixture of choline chloride and urea was able to initiate the reaction of chain homopolymerization in the absence of the hardener, thus acting as a biodegradable and sustainable catalytic curing agent for epoxy resins. Nonisothermal reaction kinetics was modeled with the results obtained by ICTAC Kinetic Project confirming the role of the analyzed deep eutectic solvent in accelerating the homopolymerization of epoxy groups. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.