Despite the significant progress, the well-controlled deposition of nanoparticles onto the support materials having 3D morphologies for the catalytic applications is still facing challenges such as the limited accessibility of reacting molecules to catalyst surface, uncontrolled aggregation of nanoparticles, high cost and highly complicated fabrication procedures. In this study, to overcome these challenges, a simple yet versatile alternative platform is proposed to control the gold nanoparticle (AuNP) size, surface coverage and morphology onto the 3D cigar filter surface via bio-inspired polydopamine (PDOP) coating. The effect of gold deposition time on AuNPs characteristics and their catalytic activity in the model reaction were investigated in detail. It is found that both AuNPs characteristics and catalytic activity can be controlled by changing deposition time. The deposition of AuNPs via functional groups of PDOP such as amine, catechol, and imine provided total conversion of 4-nitrophenol to 4-aminophenol within an hour.