The dependence of electrostatic solvation energy on dielectric constants in Poisson-Boltzmann calculations.

The Poisson-Boltzmann equation gives the electrostatic free energy of a solute molecule (with dielectric constant epsilon(l)) solvated in a continuum solvent (with dielectric constant epsilon(s)). Here a simple formula is presented that accurately predicts the electrostatic free energy for all combinations of epsilon(l) and epsilon(s) from the calculation on a single set of epsilon(l) and epsilon(s) values.