The SS(V)PE method provides a simple and efficient dielectric continuum model of the electrostatic effects of solvation on the properties of a calculated solute molecule.
Unique aspects of the method include:
- a smooth isodensity description of the solute cavity, as opposed to the commonplace union of atomic spheres cavity; and
- an accurate treatment of the influence of solute electron density that quantum mechanically penetrates outside the cavity that nominally encloses it, which is particularly important for charged solutes, and for second- and higher-order properties even in neutral olutes.
A useful account of the method can be found in:
"Comparison of solvent reaction field representations"
D. M. Chipman, Theor. Chem. Acc. 107, 80-89 (2002).