The kinetics of the cure reaction for a system of o-cresol-formaldehyde epoxy resin (o-CFER), 3-methyltetrahydrophthalic anhydride (MeTHPA), N,N-dimethylbenzylamine, and organic montmorillonite(O-MMT) were investigated by means of X-ray diffraction (XRD) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The XRD result indicates that an exfoliated nanocomposite was obtained. The analysis of DSC data indicated the behavior was shown in the first stages of the cure for the system, which could be well described by the model proposed by Kamal. In the later stages, the reaction is mainly controlled by diffusion, and diffusion factor, flu), was introduced into Kamal's equation. In this way, the curing kinetics was predicted well over the entire range of conversion. Molecular mechanism for curing reaction was discussed. The thermal degradation kinetics of the system were investigated by thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), which revealed that with the increase of O-MMT content, TG curves shift to higher temperature. (c) 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.