Patent ID: 8546518

Claim:
A method for producing a polyarylene sulfide by reacting a sulfidizing agent with a dihalogenated aromatic compound in an organic polar solvent in the presence of an alkali metal hydroxide comprising: (Step 1) carrying out a reaction of reacting the sulfidizing agent with the dihalogenated aromatic compound in the organic polar solvent in the presence of the alkali metal hydroxide for a polymerization time (T1), wherein the polymerization time (T1) includes carrying out polymerization in a temperature range of 230° C. to less than 245° C. for a period of time (T1a) including a time of rising and falling temperature that is not less than 30 minutes and less than 3.5 hours and that a conversion ratio of the dihalogenated aromatic compound at the end of the step is 80 to 98 mol.% to produce a prepolymer of polyarylene sulfide, and (Step 2) carrying out the reaction in a temperature range of 245° C. to less than 280° C. for a polymerization time (T2) including a time of rising and falling temperature of 5 minutes to less than 1 hour to obtain the polyarylene sulfide; wherein the total reaction time from the start of Step 1 to the end of Step 2 (T1 +T2) is less than 5 hours.