Next, we added two π-electron donating amine groups to the meta position of the NacNac ligand (B in Figure ) with the goal of increasing the flow of electrons from the gallium center to methane. Unfortunately, the transition state barrier for structure B rose by 15 kJ mol -1 (Figure ). Moreover, this unexpectedly high rise was not attributable to charge transfer between the imide and methane (2 kJ mol -1 ) or from methane to the imide (1 kJ mol -1 ) but rather to the increased penalty of distorting the imide (13 kJ mol -1 ), which in turn originates from increased aromaticity of the undistorted starting imide.