Nanoporous Copper Films via Dynamic Hydrogen Bubbling: A Promising SERS Substrate for Sensitive Detection of Methylene Blue

Cu-based nanomaterials have received considerable attention as promising and cost-effective substrates for surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) applications despite their relatively low enhancement factor (EF) compared to noble metals like gold and silver. In this study, a fast and affordable synthesis route is proposed to obtain a three-dimensional porous copper film (NPC) via an electrodeposition technique based on the dynamic hydrogen bubbling template (DHBT). Two sets of NPC film were synthesized, one without additives and the other with cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB). The impacts of deposition time on the NPCs’ porous morphology, thickness, and SERS performance were systematically investigated. With the optimal deposition time, the nanopore sizes could be tailored from 26.8 to 73 μm without additives and from 12.8 to 24 µm in the presence of CTAB. The optimal additive-free NPC film demonstrated excellent SERS performance at 180 s of deposition, while the CTAB-modified film showed strong enhancement at 120 s towards methylene blue (MB), a highly toxic dye, achieving a detection limit of 10−6 M. Additionally, the samples with CTAB showed better efficiency than those without CTAB. The calculated EF of NPC was found to be 5.9 × 103 without CTAB and 2.5 × 103 with the CTAB, indicating the potential of NPC as a cost-effective candidate for high-performance SERS substrates. This comprehensive study provides insights into optimizing the structural morphology of the NPCs to maximize their SERS enhancement factor and improve their detection sensitivity toward MB, thus overcoming the limitations associated with conventional copper-based SERS substrates.