Preparation of dendritic Ag/Au bimetallic nanostructures and their application in surface-enhanced Raman scattering

► Dendritic Ag/Au bimetallic nanostructures have been synthesized. ► Protruding cubic nanostructures obtained after 5 stages mature into porous structures. ► SERS results allow confirm the proposed formation mechanism. ► The nanostructures could be used as efficient SERS active substrates.