hemicar22

The carbon atom attached to only two other atoms, as, for example, in the ethyme (CH = CH) is in the sp hybridized state. The analysis of the orbital diagram (Fig. 13) shows that, as in sp³ and sp² hybridization, the transition of electrons from the 2s orbital to the empty 2p orbital occurs first. Then the 2s orbital mixes or hybridizes with only one 2p orbital, and the result is two sp hybrid orbitals. In this case, two unhybridized 2p orbitals remain, each with one electron. The two sp orbitals are maximally distant from each other and lie on one line at an angle of 180 ° (Fig. 14). The two 2p orbitals on two C atoms are perpendicular to each other, and the carbon atom in this case sp hybridized is called a digonal carbon, because the whole molecule is linear.