This paper reports the study of the solvent (ethanol, toluene, acetonitrile and carbon tetrachloride) effect on the self-assembling of alkanethiol monolayers on a polished and electroreduced Ag90Ni10 alloy. Good quality organic films on such substrates are obtained from ethanolic solutions (n-dodecanethiol: 10(-1) M, reaction time: 16 h). With similar reaction conditions, carbon tetrachloride leads to films of poor quality, while the organic layers formed from acetonitrile and toluene solutions are of intermediate quality. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.