NCAs are composed of the cations of the chemical elements lithium, nickel, cobalt and aluminium.
Noteworthy, Ni is cycled during the battery operation between oxidation states +2 and +3.5, Co- between +2 and +3, and Mn and Al remain electrochemically inactive.
[7] The aluminium ions in NCA increase stability and safety, but they reduce capacity because they do not participate in oxidation and reduction themselves.
[2] The main producers of NCA and their market shares in 2015 were Sumitomo Metal Mining with 58%, Toda Kogyo (BASF) with 16%, Nihon Kagaku Sangyo with 13% and Ecopro with 5%.
[9] In China, in Tongren County in Qinghai Province, a plant has been under construction since 2019, which will initially produce 1500 tons of NCA per month.
[14] With a few exceptions, current electric cars as of 2019 use either NCA or alternatively lithium nickel manganese cobalt oxides (NMC).
[5] In addition to use in electric cars, NCA is also used in batteries for electronic devices, mainly by Panasonic, Sony and Samsung.