FTIR: 
 FTIR measurements were conducted on a Perkin Elmer ATR desktop spectrometer with solid-state polymer samples at room temperature. 
 
 1H & 13C NMR: 
 1H and 13C NMR spectra were recorded on an Agilent 500 MHz spectrometer at room temperature using d6-acetone (for anhydride species) or D2O (for acid species) as the solvent. 
 
 GPC: 
 GPC was conducted using an Agilent GPC 1260 Infinity chromatograph using two PLgel 5μM MIXED-D 30 cm x 7.5 mm columns with a guard column PLgel 5 μm MIXED Guard 50 x 7.5 mm. The column oven was maintained at 35 °C, with GPC-grade THF as the eluent at a flow rate of 1.00 mL/min and refractive index detection and polymer concentrations between 1.0 – 2.0 mg/mL. The system was calibrated against 12 narrow molecular weight polystyrene standards with a range of Mw from 1050 Da to 2650 kDa. 
 
 DLS: 
 DLS was conducted using a Malvern Zetasizer Nanoseries at theta = 173 degrees (backscattering) and wavelength = 633 nm. 
 
 Pendant Drop Tensiometry: 
 Tensiometry was conducted on a FTA 1000 contact angle/surface tension analyser and processed using FTA 32 surface tension image analysis software. Syringe needles were prepared by extensive washing before SMA polymers in PBS at variant concentrations were passed through these to produce a small hanging droplet which was imaged at a typical rate of 10 images per second for 10 seconds. 
 
 SANS: 
 SANS was performed at the ISIS Neutron and Muon Source (Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Didcot, UK), on the SANS2D instrument (doi:10.5286/ISIS.E.RB2010215), using 1 mm quartz Hellma cells at 25 °C.  Prior to experiments, samples were mounted in a temperature controlled multi-position sample changer. Data were subsequently reduced using Mantid software and the varying solution contrasts simultaneously fit using the NIST SANS analysis package within IgorPro.