Associative polymers and related compositions, methods and systems

A method to control a physical and/or chemical property in a non-polar composition comprising

• providing a host composition having a dielectric constant equal to or less than about 5;
• providing at least one associative polymer soluble in the host composition;
• determining an overlap concentration c*for the at least one associative polymer wherein
• c
• *
• =
• 3
• ⁢
• M
• w
• 4
• ⁢
• π
• ⁡
• (
• R
• g
• 2
• )
• 3
• ⁢
• /
• ⁢
• 2
• ⁢
• ⁢
• N
• a
• ,
• wherein Mw is the weight averaged molecular weight, Rg is the radius of gyration, and Na is Avogadro's constant;
• determining a concentration c of the at least one associative polymer in the host composition, the concentration c selected between from about 0.05 c*to about 10 c* depending a physical and/or chemical property to be controlled;
• and
• combining the host composition and the at least one associative polymer herein described at the selected concentration c;
• wherein the at least one associative polymer comprises:
• a linear, branched, or hyperbranched polymer backbone having at least two ends and a functional group presented at two or more ends of the at least two ends of the backbone:
• wherein the linear, branched, or hyperbranched polymer backbone is substantially soluble in the host composition, and the functional group is capable of undergoing an associative interaction with another functional group with an association constant (k) of from 0.1<log10k<18.