Carbon monoxide (CO) is an important component of the icy mantles that accrete on interstellar dust grains. To develop a better understanding of the physicochemical basis of its infrared spectroscopy, we have studied the interaction of submonolayer coverages of CO with the surface of films of other astrophysically relevant species – ¹³CO, carbon dioxide (CO₂), ammonia (NH₃), methanol (CH₃OH) and water (H₂O) – under ultrahigh vacuum and cryogenic (10 K) conditions using reflection-absorption infrared spectroscopy (RAIRS). In support of these measurements, we have performed ab initio calculations of gas phase dimer complexes, and made comparisons to experimental results of gas phase and matrix isolated complexes, which are extensively reported in the literature. The interaction of CO can be categorised as occurring via the C atom (C_CO bonded), the O atom (O_CO bonded) or in a π-bonded configuration. The C_CO configuration is characterised by a blue shifted CO stretch frequency, and is observed for CO adsorbed on ¹³CO, CO₂ and H₂O surfaces. From the absence of such a feature from the spectra of CO adsorbed on CH₃OH it can be concluded that the dangling OH bonds required for this adsorption configuration are not present at the surface of the CH₃OH film.