Incompatibility between polymer phases resulting from hybrid miniemulsion polymerization of acrylic monomers in the presence of alkyd resin leads to interesting particle morphologies. In this paper, morphology was deduced through crosscomparison of results from several forms of microscopy. For the combination of methyl methacrylate and alkyd, a derivative of core/shell morphology was observed through the combination of transmission electron microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and spin diffusion NMR. A raspberry-like shell was found to form on the hybrid particle surface consisting of a full coverage of small (roughly 25 nm) polymethyl methacrylate spheres anchored to the particle surface through grafting with the alkyd core. Migration of the spheres to that surface is thought to be induced by phase separation, and the size of the spheres precludes their origin from homoparticles from homogeneous nucleation. Homopolymethyl methacrylate particles were also detected in the particle distribution, resulting from the aqueous-phase initiator and hydrophilicity of methyl methacrylate monomer. For copolymer/alkyd systems (either methyl methacrylate/butyl acrylate/acrylic acid/alkyd or methyl methacrylate/butyl acrylate/alkyd), more traditional core/shell morphologies were observed with a lesser degree of homonucleated particles. A significantly different result was found in the combination of butyl acrylate and alkyd, resulting in a continuous particle-phase of polylbutyl acrylate and small internally dispersed island domains of alkyd. This is likely due to the lesser incompatibility between polybutyl acrylate and alkyd along with their similar hydrophobicity and glass transition temperatures. A higher degree of grafting between the alkyd and polybutyl acrylate also contributed to the compatibility between the two components, when compared to hybrid methyl methacrylate/alkyd systems. R ecent efforts have been made to combine the properties of water-based coating systems and traditionally solvent-based systems into a unified, one-component, hybrid water-based system. 1-8 These efforts have evolved in light of growing environmental awareness in addition to the synergistic benefits possible from hybrid products. The concept and implementation of hybrid polymerization is not a new field; various forms of graft copolymers consisting of a vinyl polymer component and an unsaturated polymer have existed for decades. Carrying out these graft polymerizations in an aqueous environment negates the traditional use of organic solvent. Miniemulsion polymerization seems the most viable means of creating these hybrid polymers, as droplet nucleation affords an emulsion-like environment lacking in monomeric or polymeric mass transport across the continuous aqueous phase. 1 Conventional emulsion polymerization of some systems has resulted in phase separation of the resinous component, which, by definition, implies that grafting did not occur. 1 Conversely, hybrid polymerizations performed via a miniemulsion have resulted in in-situ gra...