Cu/SiO₂ catalysts were prepared by deposition precipitation,sol-gel and ammonia evaporation method,respectively.The physicochemical structure properties of the catalyst were characterized by N₂ adsorption-desorption,N₂O titration,XRD,FT-IR,H₂-TPR and NH₃-TPD,and the performance of hydrogenation of dimethyl adipate (DMA) to 1,6-hexanediol (HDO) was investigated.The results showed that although the sol-gel and ammonia evaporation method had high copper dispersion and surface acidity due to the the presence of copper phyllosilicate structure,they are restricted by the smaller pore structure.Instead,the Cu/SiO₂ catalyst prepared by the traditional deposition precipitation method had higher reaction activitydue to the larger pore.Under the conditions of reaction temperature 200 ℃,reaction pressure of 50 MPa,liquid hourly space velocity of 0.6 h^-1 and molar ratio of H₂ to ester of 175,the reaction could be run stably for 50 h.The conversion rate of dimethyl adipate can reach 99.8%,and the 1,6-hexanediol selectivity can reach 98.2%.