In order to explore the effects of the solvent on the formation rate of polyynes, we investigated the absorption spectra of polyynes obtained by laser ablation of a graphite target in different solvents at 1064 nm. Polyynes so produced were confirmed by the Raman band around $2200cm^{-1}$ which corresponds to the carbon triple bonds. The production of polyynes by laser ablation turned out to be significantly affected by the ratio of the hydrogen and carbon atoms in the solvent molecule. No clear correlations were observed in the formation of polyynes for other properties of the solvent such bond dissociation energy, thermal conductivity, and total mass of hydrogen atoms per volume of solvent.