Abstract: A dehydration step is conducted by heating a mixture containing an organic amide solvent and a sulfur source including an alkali metal hydrosulfide, and a part of an overall charged amount of an alkali metal hydroxide as needed. The mixture remaining within the system after the dehydration step is mixed with a dihalo-aromatic compound, the resultant mixture is heated to conduct a polymerization reaction, and the alkali metal hydroxide is added to the mixture for polymerization reaction continuously or in portions to control the pH of the mixture for polymerization reaction within a range of from 7 to 12.5 from the beginning to the end of the polymerization reaction. The poly(arylene sulfide) according to the present invention has a nitrogen content of at most 800 ppm.

Abstract: The invention provides a polyarylene sulfide resin composition which can be molded with remarkably reduced trouble of mold-deposit and is improved in thermal stability. The composition contains (A) 100 parts by weight of a polyarylene sulfide resin having a nitrogen element content of 0.55 g or less per 1 kg of the resin and (B) 5-400 parts by weight of an inorganic filler.