Positive electrode active material for lithium secondary battery and use thereof

A method for producing a positive electrode active material for a lithium secondary battery constituted by a lithium-nickel-cobalt-manganese complex oxide with a lamellar structure having lithium, nickel, cobalt, and manganese as essential constituent elements, the method comprising:

• preparing a starting source material for producing a complex oxide represented by the following formula:
• Li1+xNiaCobMncMedO2 (1)
• where, x, a, b, c, and d are numbers satisfying all of the following conditions:
• 0.05≦x≦0.2,
• 0.3≦a≦0.6,
• 0.1≦b≦0.6,
• 0.1≦c≦0.5,
• 0≦d≦0.02,
• a+b+c+d=1, and
• Me is one or two or more element selected from the group consisting of V, Nb, Ta, Mo, and W,
• wherein the starting source material comprises a nickel-cobalt-manganese complex hydroxide including Ni, Co, Mn and the Me element in the formula (1) and a lithium supply source, and
• the starting source material is prepared such that a molar ratio (Li/Mall) of lithium (Li) and a total (Mall) of all other constituent metal elements is 1.11≦Li/Mall≦1.2;
• pre-firing the starting source material by heating at a pre-firing temperature that has been set to a temperature lower than 800° C. and higher than a melting temperature of the lithium supply source;
• and
• firing the pre-fired material obtained in the pre-firing step by raising a temperature to a temperature range higher than the pre-firing temperature.