New methacrylate-type prepolymers including a cyclohexane moiety, which may be used as binder resins for the color filter resist of liquid crystal display, were synthesized by the reaction with methacrylic acid (MA) and epoxy resins. Their photo- and thermal cure properties were investigated using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and DSC, respectively. Their photocure reaction rates and the extent of reaction conversion increased with the concentration of photoinitiator and intensity of UV irradiation. An increase of photocure reaction temperature was attributed to the increase of photocure reaction rate and the degree of reaction conversion for EHPE-3150-MA prepolymer. Thermal stability was studied by observing changes in the transmittance of the photocured polymer film upon heating. The polymer was extremely stable, showing almost no transmittance change in the visible range even after being heated at 250degreesC for 1 h. We also investigated thermal cure reaction using a DSC technique. An autocatalytic kinetic reaction occurs in these systems, and the kinetic parameters of all systems were reported in terms of a generalized kinetic equation that considered the diffusion term. It can be shown that the reaction conversion rate of NC-9110-MA is faster than that of EHPE-3150-MA, regardless of the kind of thermal initiator. (C) 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.