Polyphenylene ether resins of controlled molecular weight and process of manufacture.

摘要

The chain length, and therefore, the molecular weight of polyphenylene ether resins prepared by the oxidative coupling of phenols in the presence of a copperamine catalyst is controlled in such a process by additionally including in the reaction mixture an effective amount of a phenolic compound having an acidity constant (Ka) the same as, or greater than, phenol. The additional compound can be phenol itself, or various other phenolic compounds not normally suitable as starting materials for the polymerization reaction.