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Employing the oxidative coupling of phenylacetylene with benzaldehyde as a model reaction, a density functional theory (DFT) study combined with extended X-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) experiment was carried out to reveal the difference between dinuclear and mononuclear zinc mediated nucleophilic addition. Newly reported DFT method M11-L computed results suggest that the mononuclear zinc mediated pathway, in which nucleophilic addition occurs via a four-membered ring transition state, is unfavourable both thermodynamically and kinetically. The dinuclear zinc mechanism, which appropriately explains the experimental observations, involves a six-membered ring transition state for nucleophilic addition. Subsequent in situ EXAFS experiment confirmed the existence of dinuclear zinc active species. Moreover, frontier molecular orbital (FMO) analysis and distortion–interaction energy analysis along the whole reaction pathways have provided interpretations for the advantage of dinuclear zinc mediated nucleophilic addition. Consequently, we believe this dinuclear zinc pathway will open up a general consideration of the dinuclear zinc mechanism for nucleophilic additions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]