Synthesis of three-dimensional nanoporous graphene for use as surface-enhanced Raman scattering substrate

We synthesized 3D nanoporous graphene by a chemical vapour deposition method with nanoporous copper as a catalytic substrate, and we show that the resulting nanoporous graphene has the same average pore size and the same morphology as the underlying copper substrate. Our surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) investigation indicates that the nanoporosity of graphene significantly improves the SERS efficiency of graphene as a substrate, which is better than that of planar single-layer graphene substrates.