“…The key to the development of lithium ion batteries is the cathode materials. LiNi 1/3 Co 1/3 Mn 1/3 O 2 , firstly proposed by Ohzuku [1], has been extensively studied as one of promising alternative cathode materials to replace LiCoO 2 and have been applied in hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) and electric vehicles (EVs) owing to their high discharge capacities and low cost [2][3][4][5][6][7][8]. In LiNi 1/3 Co 1/3 Mn 1/3 O 2 , the valence states of Mn, Ni and Co ions are þ4, þ2 and þ 3, respectively and the existence of Mn 4 þ prevents the layered structure transferring to the spinel structure during lithium de-intercalation/intercalation.…”