Catechol‐Based Biomimetic Functional Materials

Catechols are found in nature taking part in a remarkably broad scope of biochemical processes and functions. Though not exclusively, such versatility may be traced back to several properties uniquely found together in the o-dihydroxyaryl chemical function; namely, its ability to establish reversible equilibria at moderate redox potentials and pHs and to irreversibly cross-link through complex oxidation mechanisms; its excellent chelating properties, greatly exemplified by, but by no means exclusive, to the binding of Fe(3+); and the diverse modes of interaction of the vicinal hydroxyl groups with all kinds of surfaces of remarkably different chemical and physical nature. Thanks to this diversity, catechols…