The spinel LiNi 0.5 Mn 1.5 O 4 cathode material has been successfully prepared employing a simple and novel urea-based sol–gel method. The material exhibits excellent cycle stability to reach 132, 123 and 113mAhg −1 at 1, 3 and 5C (25°C), respectively. When cycled at 55°C, 105mAhg −1 could be achieved at 5C with only 8.6% capacity fading after 150 cycles. In addition, the satisfactory high rate (20C) cycle performance at 25°C has been shown to reach 97.8mAhg −1 , retaining 87.5% after 200 cycles. The results indicate that urea should be a universal and low-cost chelating agent for the synthesis of LiNi 0.5 Mn 1.5 O 4 cathode material with excellent electrochemical properties.