Patent ID: 8680230

Claim:
A production process of a poly(arylene sulfide) whose content of a terminal halogen group has been reduced, comprising a step of polymerizing a sulfur source and a dihalo-aromatic compound in an organic amide solvent, said polymerization step comprising a phase-separation polymerization step in which the polymerization reaction is continued in the presence of a phase separation agent in a phase-separated state wherein a concentrated formed polymer phase and a dilute formed polymer phase are present in a mixed state in a liquid phase within the polymerization reaction system, wherein (1) a monohalo-organic compound is added in a proportion of 0.005 to 20 mol per 100 mol of the charged sulfur source into the polymerization reaction system at the time when a conversion of the dihalo-aromatic compound has reached 80 to 99% after initiation of the polymerization reaction and before the liquid phase becomes the phase-separated state, to be reacted with a formed polymer, wherein the monohalo-organic compound is at least one monohalo-organic compound selected from the group consisting of monohalo-substituted saturated aliphatic hydrocarbons, monohalo-substituted unsaturated aliphatic hydrocarbons, monohalo-substituted saturated cyclic hydrocarbons, and monohalo-substituted aromatic hydrocarbons, and then (2) the liquid phase within the polymerization reaction system is converted to the phase-separated state to continue the polymerization reaction, wherein a high-molecular weight granular poly(arylene sulfide) are obtained at a high yield while retaining a melt viscosity at a high level.