Voronoi deformation density (VDD) is a method employed in computational chemistry to compute the atomic charge distribution of a molecule in order to provide information about its chemical properties.
The method is based on the partitioning of space into non-overlapping atomic areas modelled as Voronoi cells and then computing the deformation density within those cells (i.e. the extent to which electron density differs from that of an unbonded atom).
Furthermore, ρ(r) is the electron density of the molecule and ΣBρB(r) the superposition of atomic densities ρB of a fictitious promolecule without chemical interactions that is associated with the situation in which all atoms are neutral.
Nevertheless, it has been proven a useful means to compactly describe and analyze the electron density distribution in a molecule, which is important for understanding the behavior of the latter.
In this connection, it is an asset of VDD atomic charges QA that they have a rather straightforward and transparent interpretation.