In the course of studies on the characterization of commercial polyacrylamides used in tertiary oil recovery, samples of BASF Sepaflood suspension polymerized polyacrylamide with varying degrees of hydrolysis were observed using a Hitachi S-450 scanning electron microscope. Figs ! and 2 show an overall view of a nonhydrolysed (CE 5093) and highly hydrolysed (CE 5095) Sepaflood sample, respectively. Although in both cases the expected bead morphology of a suspension polymer is observed, the photographs reveal the presence of certain individual beads with differing morphologies. Hollow shells (Fig. 1) and nested spheres within the beads (Fig. 2) can be seen in the samples. After having observed many samples, the following conclusions were drawn: 1. The majority of the beads are either solid (Fig. 3) or hollow with shells of different thicknesses (Fig. 4). Figure 2 Overall view of sample CE 5095. Scale bar is 620/tm. (Arrows point to nested spheres in beads).