A potassium salt of N-chloroacetyl-11-aminoundecanoate was thermally polymerized to obtain the corresponding poly(glycolic acid-alt-11-aminoundecanoic acid). A kinetic study was then performed that was based on isothermal and nonisothermal polymerizations performed in a differential scanning calorimeter. The complete kinetic triplet was determined (the activation energy, pre-exponential factor, and integral function of the degree of conversion). A kinetic analysis was performed with an integral isoconversional procedure (free model), and the kinetic model was determined both with the Coats-Redfern method (the obtained isoconversional value being accepted as the effective activation energy) and through the compensation effect. The polymerization followed a three-dimensional growth-of-nuclei (Avrami) kinetic mechanism. Isothermal polymerization was simulated with nonisothermal data. (C) 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.