Epoxy resin, method for producing epoxy resin, curable resin composition, cured product, fiber reinforced composite material, and molded article

A method for producing an epoxy resin, comprising:

• causing phenols to react with formaldehydes at a ratio of phenols:formaldehydes=35:1 to 25:1 (molar ratio) by an acid catalyst, performing the reaction under a condition for distilling excess phenols to obtain bisphenol F (A), 90% or more of which is a body with n=0, causing the obtained bisphenol F (A) to react with formaldehydes under a condition of bisphenol F (A):formaldehydes=1:0.20 to 1:0.65 (molar ratio) to obtain a phenol novolac resin, and causing the phenol novolac resin to react with epihalohydrin.

A method for producing an epoxy resin, comprising:

• causing phenols to react with formaldehydes at a ratio of phenols:formaldehydes=35:1 to 25:1 (molar ratio) by an acid catalyst present in a range of 0.1% to 3.0%, performing the reaction under a condition for distilling excess phenols, further performing distillation by thin-film molecular distillation to obtain bisphenol F (B), to obtain bisphenol F (B), 99% or more of which is a body with n=0, causing the obtained bisphenol F (B) to react with formaldehydes under a condition of bisphenol F (B):formaldehydes=1:0.20 to 1:0.65 (molar ratio) to obtain a phenol novolac resin, and causing the phenol novolac resin to react with epihalohydrin.