Semi-finished product · Electronic components
NMC cathode powder
One kilogram of NMC532 cathode active material
This page shows what the product is made of and where each figure comes from. It shows no death toll. The toll is computed from this bill of materials from session 19, and published only once it has an uncertainty interval and has passed a backtest.
Lithium nickel manganese cobalt oxide, LiNi0.5Mn0.3Co0.2O2 (NMC532), made by calcining a co-precipitated precursor with lithium carbonate. Argonne's report names NMC532 as a chemistry holding a significant share of the current battery market, and it is the one chemistry whose whole chain — cathode, precursor, metal salts — this source publishes, so it is modelled end to end from that one document. Cathode powder is where a battery's cobalt, nickel and lithium enter.
- Overall grade — medium
- Status — draft
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What it is made of
Each line is one component of one kilogram of NMC532 cathode active material: how much of it goes in, how much had to be produced for that, and where the figure comes from.
| Component | Quantity | Source |
|---|---|---|
|
Nickel
ingredient |
311 g | Winjobi, Dai and Kelly (2020), Update of Bill-of-Materials and Cathode Chemistry addition…
· high
Table 5 gives 0.945 t of precursor and 0.381 t of Li2CO3 per tonne of NMC532; Table 7 gives the precursor's metal sulphates. The contained metal follows from the molar masses: 0.945 x 0.868 t NiSO4 x 0.3793 Ni = 311.11 g of contained nickel per kilogram |
|
Cobalt
ingredient |
126 g | Winjobi, Dai and Kelly (2020), Update of Bill-of-Materials and Cathode Chemistry addition…
· high
Table 5 gives 0.945 t of precursor and 0.381 t of Li2CO3 per tonne of NMC532; Table 7 gives the precursor's metal sulphates. The contained metal follows from the molar masses: 0.945 x 0.350 t CoSO4 x 0.3802 Co = 125.76 g of contained cobalt per kilogram |
|
Lithium
ingredient |
71.6 g | Winjobi, Dai and Kelly (2020), Update of Bill-of-Materials and Cathode Chemistry addition…
· high
Table 5 gives 0.945 t of precursor and 0.381 t of Li2CO3 per tonne of NMC532; Table 7 gives the precursor's metal sulphates. The contained metal follows from the molar masses: 0.381 t Li2CO3 x 0.1879 Li = 71.58 g of contained lithium per kilogram |
|
Manganese
ingredient |
170 g | Winjobi, Dai and Kelly (2020), Update of Bill-of-Materials and Cathode Chemistry addition…
· high
Table 5 gives 0.945 t of precursor and 0.381 t of Li2CO3 per tonne of NMC532; Table 7 gives the precursor's metal sulphates. The contained metal follows from the molar masses: 0.945 x 0.494 t MnSO4 x 0.3638 Mn = 169.85 g of contained manganese per kilogram. Manganese is not in HumanToll's materials register, so this mass reaches no supply chain Registered as the material `manganese` on 2026-09-18 from USGS mine production. |
|
Oxygen, chemically bound ingredient |
322 g | Winjobi, Dai and Kelly (2020), Update of Bill-of-Materials and Cathode Chemistry addition…
· medium
the balance of the kilogram after the four metals. LiNi0.5Mn0.3Co0.2O2 is 33.2% oxygen by molar mass and this chain leaves 32.2%, which is how closely the source's tonnages and the formula agree |
|
Electricity, calcination energy |
6.35 kWh | Winjobi, Dai and Kelly (2020), Update of Bill-of-Materials and Cathode Chemistry addition…
· high
Table 5: 21.670 mmBtu per tonne of product, which is 22.9 MJ per kilogram; the report's text rounds it to 7 kWh/kg |
|
Natural gas, precursor co-precipitation energy |
10.7 kWh | Winjobi, Dai and Kelly (2020), Update of Bill-of-Materials and Cathode Chemistry addition…
· high
Table 7: 38.618 mmBtu per tonne of precursor, at 0.945 t of precursor per tonne of cathode |
Down to raw materials
The whole chain multiplied out — everything one kilogram of NMC532 cathode active material needs, through every intermediate product, with every loss on the way included.
| Input | Per functional unit |
|---|---|
| Cobalt | 126 g |
| Lithium | 71.6 g |
| Manganese | 170 g |
| Nickel | 311 g |
| Electricity, calcination (not in the register) | 6.35 kWh |
| Natural gas, precursor co-precipitation (not in the register) | 10.7 kWh |
| Oxygen, chemically bound (not in the register) | 322 g |
An input marked “not in the register” is counted by mass and reaches no supply chain yet. Industries appear as the euros or tonne-kilometres the bill of materials gives them.
How much of it is explicit
100% of this product’s mass is explicit in its own bill of materials.
Its whole chain draws on 1.00 kg of materials, losses included. 68% of that is registered raw materials — the part the model can trace harm to — 32% is inputs not yet in the register, and 0% is a declared remainder.
In the input–output model it belongs to “Manufacture of chemicals and chemical products” (FIGARO industry C20).
In the input–output model it belongs to “Manufacture of chemicals and chemical products” (FIGARO industry C20).
What uses it
Products whose own bill of materials includes this one.
- Lithium-ion cell — 476 g in one kilogram of lithium-ion battery cells
The number this page does not show
The harm in this chain is not shown.
The model allocates the harm counted where each raw material is produced to the products that use it. That number is a count of people with a run behind it and no uncertainty interval yet, and nothing of that kind is published before the backtest of session 21. What this page can show without it is the structure: what the product is made of, and where each part of that knowledge comes from.