A gel can be used as an environment for STM measurements with excellent stability. Our gelator molecule is stearic acid and the confined solvent can be one of the solvents that are commonly used in STM imaging at liquid‐solid interfaces. In addition to the gelator molecules themselves, also other molecules included in the gel can self‐assemble at the gel‐solid interface. In this case there is a competition between the gelator molecules and the additive for a position at the interface. © 2003 American Institute of Physics