Nickel manganese cobalt (NMC) oxides have been pursued for stable and high energy density cathodes in lithium ion batteries for years. The current synthesis techniques based on co-precipitation and hydrothermal techniques require reaction time scales on the order of several hours making them difficult for scale-up. Here, we present a scalable manufacturing technique based on atmospheric plasma based spray pyrolysis for producing NMC (and Li-NMC) with reaction time scales of the order of minutes. Results show that the chemistry of resulting materials (Ni/Mn/Co ratio) can be controlled from precursor composition. Specifically, the compound LiNi0.2Mn0.6Co0.2O2, is prepared by the atmospheric plasma-assisted synthesis method. The resulting LiNi0.2Mn0.6Co0.2O2 cathode material demonstrates a durable performance with an initial discharge specific capacity of 258 mAh g(-1) while maintaining above 210 mAh g(-1) after 50 cycles. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.