•The PDA@Ag coating on α-TCP cement was prepared conveniently and efficiently.•The effect of the coating on mineralization properties of cement was investigated.•The antibacterial assay of the cement was performed and the mechanism was analyzed. The ideal orthopedic material demands excellent antimicrobial properties and bioactivity after initial implantation in vivo. In this paper, a polydopamine (PDA) film was prepared by dopamine self-polymerization on α-tricalcium phosphate (α-TCP) cement, and then silver (Ag) particles were immobilized in-situ on the surface of PDA via a dipping method. The presence of PDA and Ag in the composition of modified cement was confirmed by XPS. The results showed that after the modification of PDA coating and Ag particles, the roughness and contact angle of the cement increased from 36.4 nm to 120 nm and 18.8° to 58.8°, respectively. Moreover, the mineralization capacity of modified cement was considerably enhanced, generating dense hydroxyapatite (HA) layer with a thickness of 3.04 μm. Furthermore, the modified cement was revealed to provide antibacterial rate over 99 %. It is suggested that good bioactivity and antimicrobial properties of the cement can be achieved using the promising method.