Aggregation induced, formaldehyde tailored nanowire like networks of Cu and their SERS activity

[Display omitted] •Simple wet chemical procedure was demonstrated to obtain nanowire like Cu nano-networks.•Non-toxic, common organic molecule formaldehyde was used as reducing agent.•Cu nano networks containing interesting inter-particle junctions can act as “hotspots”.•SERS activity of these structures was examined by methylene blue as analyte molecule. Low cost SERS substrates are imperative to develop single use, point of care diagnostics. In the quest for such SERS substrates, we developed a wet chemical method to produce Cu nanowire like networks. The oriented attachment and coalescence observed in these network like nanostructures infer their aggregation behavior that ultimately results in the generation of exciting inter-particle junctions. The hot spots formed by these inter-particle junctions certainly increases the electromagnetic enhancement. SERS activity of these substrates is evaluated using methylene blue (MB) molecule and found activity enhancement by a factor of 1.1 × 104.