The Lennard-Jones potential yields a good approximation of intermolecular interactions for many applications: The macroscopic properties computed using the Lennard-Jones potential are in good agreement with experimental data for simple substances like argon on one side and the potential function V L J ( r ) is in fair agreement with results from quantum chemistry on the other side. The Lennard-Jones potential gives a good description of molecular interactions in fluid phases, whereas molecular interactions in solid phases are only roughly well described. This is mainly due to the fact that multi-body interactions play a significant role in solid phases, which are not comprised in the Lennard-Jones potential. Therefore, the Lennard-Jones potential is extensively used in soft-matter physics and associated fields, whereas it is less frequently used in solid-state physics. Due to its simplicity, the Lennard-Jones potential is often used to describe the properties of gases and simple fluids and to model dispersive and repulsive interactions in molecular models. It is especially accurate for noble gas atoms and methane. It is furthermore a good approximation for molecular interactions at long and short distances for neutral atoms and molecules. Therefore, the Lennard-Jones potential is very often used as a building block of molecular models of complex molecules, e.g. alkanes or water. The Lennard-Jones potential can also be used to model the adsorption interactions at solid–fluid interfaces, i.e. physisorption or chemisorption.