SP carbocation?

[DrRichand1]

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Is it possible to make an sp carbocation?

 

[chiddler]

an alkyne + t-butyl lithium will deprotonate the alkyne's terminal proton. that's about as close as you can get i think.

i don't think you can deprotonate an alkene, though, which would give an actual SP hybridized carbocation.

this is not required knowledge, though.

 

[loveoforganic]

Is it possible to make an sp carbocation?

I did some research in undergrad on carbenes and vaguely remember an sp carbocation intermediate in the synthesis route for some of them, but I could be completely delusional about that. Just something to look into if you feel the desire, certainly not mcat-able.

 

[SH3]

Is it possible to make an sp carbocation?

It is possible to generate a sp carbocation albeit probably not the way you would think. In a vinyl carbocation, such as ethene, the carbon bearing the positive charge will be a sp hybrid and give linear geometry.

H-C=C-H
H/

In that case the 2nd carbon would be sp.