Kinetic study of the novolac resin curing process using model fitting and model-free methods

► A piecewise kinetic method is developed and described well the cure behavior of novolac resin. ► The mechanism changes from autocatalytic to n-order kinetic gradually during the cure reaction. ► Model-free kinetic results show the same reaction mechanism with the model fitting model. ► Model-free kinetic methods do better in the prediction of isothermal curing behavior.