We are interested in synthesizing and using organic electrode surfaces. It is known that many polymers strongly adsorb to solids and it appeared that the surface of metals could be usefully modified by adsorbing ultra-thin, e.g., monolayer, films of polymers. In this paper we show that such adsorbed layers can be reproducibly formed; that useful structural information about the surface can be obtained using electron spectroscopy; and that such materials are useful as electrodes in solution. This approach is very general and will be a useful alternative to other, recently discovered methods for preparing chemically modified electrodes.