LAUSR

The β‐cyclodextrin (β‐CD) was successfully applied to synthesize Cu‐SiO2 catalysts by the sol‐gel method. The first and most important question addressed was increasing the copper loading with higher dispersion in the silica support. Another task was to elucidate the structure–performance relationship. Furthermore, catalysts with various β‐CD doping levels were systematically characterized and employed in the hydrogenation of dimethyl oxalate (DMO) to ethylene glycol (EG). The 0.1CD‐Cu‐SiO2 catalyst with 17.39 wt % copper showed 99.9 % DMO conversion and the highest EG selectivity of 95.0 % at 210 °C, as well a lifetime of over 240 h. The reaction results disclosed that the catalytic performance could be tuned facilely by changing the amount of β‐CD doping, which effectively influenced the Cu metallic surface area and dispersion.