The Vyazovkin model-free method were applied to study non-isothermal degradation of an aryl and hetaryl azo dye-containing polynorbornene using a differential scanning calorimetric (DSC) technique. The samples were heated in nitrogen, with heating rates in the range 5-50K min(-1). The isoconversional method of Vyazovkin was used to determine the variation of the activation energy for degradation with temperature, E-alpha(T). The values of E-alpha(T) were found to be almost independent of temperature. The results of isoconversional methods used suggest that the transition follows a single-step kinetics reaction mechanism. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.