Polyphenylene ether, methods for manufacturing polyphenylene ether, porous membranes, pharmaceutical process filters and water treatment membranes

Abstract

The object of this invention is to provide a polyphenylene ether with a low molecular weight component ratio and excellent solubility in water-soluble organic solvents, and a method for manufacturing the same. To solve the above-mentioned problem, this invention is characterized in that: relative to the total 100 mol% of the repeating units of formulas (1) and (2) below, the content of repeating units derived from the phenol of formula (1) is 70 mol% or more and 99.5 mol% or less, the content of repeating units derived from the phenol of formula (2) is 0.5 mol% or more and 30 mol% or less, and the polyphenylene ether component with a molecular weight of 1.0 × 10⁴ or less as determined by gel permeation chromatography (GPC) is 15 wt% or less.