The catechol plays a variety of important roles in biological processes, prompting researchers to include them in the design of biomimetic biomedical materials. The low molecular weight and good water solubility of the catechol group (or its derivatives) make it a good candidate for functionalizing biomaterials that can be typically achieved by grafting it onto a polymer chain. To fully harness the powerful capabilities of catechols, one can think beyond grafting to linear polymer chains, towards hyperbranched polymers, wherein at least one of the branches comprises at least one catechol moiety. In recent years, a number of approaches have been developed to synthesize multifunctional hyperbranched polymers with catechol functionalities for bioadhesives and surface coatings. This review article focuses on the main synthetic approaches applied for introducing the important and versatile catechol building blocks within the (hyper)branched structure polymers. In addition, the applications of these polymers in biomedical fields are highlighted as well.

邻苯二酚在生物过程中起着多种重要作用，促使研究人员将其纳入仿生生物医学材料的设计中。邻苯二酚基团（或其衍生物）的低分子量和良好的水溶性使其成为功能化生物材料的良好候选者，通常可以通过将其接枝到聚合物链上来实现该功能。为了充分利用邻苯二酚的强大功能，人们可以考虑将其接枝到线性聚合物链之外，转向超支化聚合物，其中至少一个分支包含至少一个邻苯二酚部分。近年来，已开发出许多方法来合成具有邻苯二酚功能的多功能超支化聚合物，用于生物粘合剂和表面涂料。这篇综述文章重点介绍了主要的合成方法，这些方法用于在（超）支化结构聚合物中引入重要而通用的邻苯二酚结构单元。另外，还突出了这些聚合物在生物医学领域中的应用。