The interaction energy at the transition state ∆E IN T was further decomposed using energy decomposition analysis based on absolutely localized molecular orbitals (ALMO EDA) . When the distorted methane and the gallium imide were brought together, their electron clouds were allowed to interact but without any relaxation of the molecular orbitals, defining ∆E F RZ . Then the electron clouds were allowed to relax in the field generated by the other molecule, without allowing the electron density to flow between the fragments, defining ∆E P OL . Finally the electrons were allowed to delocalize between the fragments in each direction, providing ∆E CT (CH 4 → GaN) and ∆E CT (GaN → CH 4 ), along with higher order relaxation effects ∆E CT (HO).