The invention discloses a preparation method of a 
lithium ion battery positive 
electrode composite material and a precursor thereof, and in particular relates to a novel method for preparing a high-purity low-cost binary or ternary precursor and preparing a high-performance 
lithium ion battery binary or ternary positive 
electrode composite material by utilizing the precursor, belonging to the technical field of 
new energy materials and the preparation thereof. The method comprises the following specific steps: (1) putting salt-type 
solid raw materials of two or three of 
nickel, 
cobalt and 
manganese with 
crystal water into a reactor, and heating the materials to the 
molten state; (2) introducing 
ammonia under the protection of 
inert gas, supplementing a small amount of water or no water according to the 
solubility of salts at different temperatures, stirring and reacting; (3) evaporating 
ammonium salt after full reaction, taking the 
solid out, and 
drying so as to get the amorphous binary or ternary positive 
electrode composite material precursor; and (4) mixing the precursor with 
lithium carbonate according to a certain ratio, and further preparing the 
lithium ion battery positive electrode composite material through a two-section 
sintering method. The precursor synthetic method is simple, 
sodium hydroxide is avoided from being used, separation and purification are not required, and the high-purity positive electrode composite material precursor which has no impurities basically can be obtained; furthermore, no 
industrial waste water is discharged, and the by-product 
ammonium salt can further generate economic benefit; and the positive electrode composite material prepared by the precursor has excellent performances, and is convenient for industrialization.