In this work, a simple, cost-effective, and environmental-friendly strategy was developed to synthesize gold nanoparticles (Au NPs) decorated graphene hydrogel with the use of tannic acid. This facile route involved the reduction of graphene oxide (GO) in the presence of tannic acid to form tannic acid functionalized graphene hydrogel, followed by loading and in situ reduction of AuCl4- ions in the graphene hydrogel network benefiting from the abundant phenol groups of tannic acid. Tannic acid (TA), a typical plant polyphenol widely present in woods, not only reduced GO and induced the self-assembly of reduced graphene oxide into graphene hydrogel, but also served as the reducing agent and stabilizer for the synthesis and immobilization of Au NPs, avoiding extra chemical reagent and any stabilizer. The obtained Au NPs decorated graphene hydrogel (Au@TA-GH) was fully characterized and exhibited much higher catalytic activities than the unsupported and other polymer-supported Au NPs toward the reduction of methylene blue (MB). In addition, the high catalytic activity of Au@TA-GH could withhold in different pH solution conditions. Another distinct advantage of Au@TA-GH as catalysts is that it can be easily recovered and reused for five cycles. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.