The invention relates to the technical field of catalysts, and particularly discloses a preparation method and application of a catalyst for hydrogenation of dimethyl 1, 6-
adipate, and the preparation method of the catalyst comprises the following steps: S1, crushing and sieving
montmorillonite, carrying out
acid treatment, and washing and
drying after treatment; s2, dissolving szaibelyite in hot
nitric acid under stirring, filtering after dissolving is completed, adding a
barium hydroxide solution into filtrate, mixing and stirring, adjusting the pH value to 9.5-10.5, and aging at 50-80 DEG C; s3, uniformly mixing the
montmorillonite obtained in the S1 with the material obtained in the S2 for reaction, and then filtering, washing,
drying and
roasting to obtain a modified
montmorillonite carrier; and S4, uniformly mixing the modified montmorillonite carrier, a
metal salt solution and a precipitant, standing, aging, filtering, washing,
drying and calcining to obtain the modified montmorillonite catalyst. The catalyst has good catalytic performance in the reaction process of preparing 1, 6-hexanediol through hydrogenation of dimethyl 1, 6-
adipate, the conversion rate of dimethyl 1, 6-
adipate and the selectivity of 1, 6-hexanediol are both higher than 99%, impurities are few, the catalyst is not prone to loss, and the catalyst is green and
environmentally friendly.