Abstract: Nanoporous bimetals have unique three-dimensional nanostructures and synergistic optical properties, making them good candidates for surface-enhanced Raman scat-tering (SERS). A nanoporous copper-silver bimetallic SERS substrate was prepared by a dealloying process using a zirconium-copper-silver amorphous alloy as the precursor. The substrate with uniform nanopores showed excellent SERS properties. The detection limits for rhodamine 6G (R6G) and crystal violet (CV) were 10⁻¹⁶ and 10⁻¹⁰ mol/L, respectively. The substrate also exhibited good uniformity and stability. The preparation of simple, efficient, and low-cost nanoporous copper-silver provides a new approach for the realization of high-performance SERS substrates.

Key words: surface-enhanced Raman scattering, nanoporous copper-silver bimetal, ultrasensitive detection