Manufacturing method of polyphenylene ether

Abstract

The object of this invention is to provide a method for manufacturing polyphenylene ether with low viscosity while controlling the reactivity during the manufacturing process. To solve the above-mentioned problem, this invention is characterized by the following steps: introducing an oxygen-containing gas into a solution containing phenol of formula (1) and phenol of formula (2) to carry out oxidative polymerization, wherein the moisture content of the oxygen-containing gas is 0.2–50 mg / L, and the resulting polyphenylene ether has a specific viscosity (ηsp / c) of 0.03–0.30 dL / g as measured at 30°C in a chloroform solution with a concentration of 0.5 g / dL.