Coatings obtained from the oxidation of catecholamines, most often dopamine, allow not only to coat the surface of all classes of known materials (metals, oxides, polymers, liquid/liquid and liquid/air interfaces) with a conformal and robust film but also to easily post-functionalize such coatings with metal nanoparticles and enzymes using the intrinsic redox and quinone functionalities of the coating. Hence polydopamine (PDA) based coatings offer huge perspectives for the immobilization of catalysts. This review provides a summary of the first successful research efforts in this domain and provides some first proofs of concept that PDA may act as a catalyst by itself for aldolations, formation of carbonates from CO2 and epoxides and for hydrolysis reactions without addition of further enzymes or metal nanoparticles. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.