Hydrodimerization

Hydrodimerization is an organic reaction that couples two alkenes to give a symmetrical hydrocarbon. The reaction often implemented electrochemically, in which case the reaction is called electrodimerization. Hydrodimerization is the basis of the Monsanto adiponitrile synthesis:^[1]

2 CH₂=CHCN + 2 e⁻ + 2 H⁺ → NCCH₂CH₂CH₂CH₂CN

The reaction applies to a number electrophilic alkenes (Michael acceptors).^[2][3] In addition to electrochemistry, the reaction can be induced with samarium diiodide, a one-electron reductant. 

This article uses material from the Wikipedia article  Metasyntactic variable, which is released under the  Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.