Abstract: To avoid the corrosion of stainless steel equipment caused by halogen ions, urea was employed as the nitrogen source to dope activated carbon with nitrogen. The Cu/N-AC catalyst was prepared via an impregnation method using nitrogen-doped activated carbon as support, and it was utilized for the liquid-phase oxidation of methanol to synthesize dimethoxymethane. Characterization techniques including XRD, N₂ isothermal adsorption and desorption, XPS, TEM, and H₂-TPR were employed to examine the influence of urea amount on pore structure, surface functional groups, valence distribution of active component, and catalytic performance. Pyridinic nitrogen, pyrrolic nitrogen, and oxidized nitrogen were introduced onto the surface of activated carbon after nitrogen doping. Pyridinic nitrogen, acting as an anchor site, facilitated the reduction of Cu particle size, enhanced the dispersion of Cu. 5%Cu/N-AC(2) shows the best catalytic performance, the conversion of methanol is 19.1% and the selectivity of DMM is 79.4%.The nitrogen-containing groups in the Cu/N-AC catalyst strengthened the interaction between active components and support, inhibited the aggregation of Cu, and consequently the catalytic performance was improved.