  The Lennard-Jones potential is widely used to describe the interlayer
interactions within layered materials like graphene. However, it is also widely
known that this potential strongly underestimates the frictional properties for
layered materials. Here we propose to supplement the Lennard-Jones potential by
a Gaussian-type potential, which enables more accurate calculations of the
frictional properties of two-dimensional layered materials. Furthermore, the
Gaussian potential is computationally simple as it introduces only one
additional potential parameter that is determined by the interlayer shear mode
in the layered structure. The resulting Lennard-Jones-Gaussian potential is
applied to compute the interlayer cohesive energy and frictional energy for
graphene, MoS2, black phosphorus, and their heterostructures.
