Gels from anhydride-containing polymers

A method of making a composition comprising a gel having a Voland hardness between 2 and 500 g, a stress relaxation of less than 85%, an elongation greater than 50%, and a tack greater than 2 g and comprising between about 3 and about 45% by weight of an anhydride-containing polymer having from about 0.01 wt % to about 10 wt % of anhydride groups, based on the weight of said anhydride containing polymer, and between about 97 and about 55% by weight of an extending fluid, the %'s by weight of said anhydride-containing polymer and extending fluid being based on the combined amounts of said anhydride-containing polymer and said extending fluid;

• said method comprising reacting the anhydride moieties in said anhydride-containing polymer with an alcohol to form ester-acid moieties and then reacting said ester-acid moieties with a multifunctional amine to form imide linkages, wherein said alcohol is selected from the group consisting of methanol, ethanol, propanol, butanol, pentanol, hexanol, heptanol, octanol, nonanol, decanol, undecanol, dodecanol, tridecanol, tetradecanol, pentadecanol, hexadecanol, heptadecanol, octadecanol, eicosanol, benzvl alcohol, phenylethanol, phenoxyethanol, phenylpropanol, phenylbutanol, phenylpentanol, phenylhexanol, phenylheptanol, phenyloctanol, phenylnonanol, phenyldecanol, phenylundecanol, phenyldodecanol, and mixtures thereof.