Three kinds of morphology precursors were synthesized by three different hydrothermal assisted coprecipitation methods and calcined to obtain the nanoscale cathode materials Li2MnO3 center dot LiMO2 (M = Mn, Co, Ni) for lithium ion battery. The difference in dispersed ions, solvothermal solvents and calcination for precursors may lead to different nucleation kinetics, and further lead to different morphologies for precursors. Interestingly, the precursors form the battery cathode materials with similar morphologies in different crystallographic directions. In addition, a theoretical simulation has been carried out to confirm that lithium ions migrate activation barrier is the lowest along the b-axis, while the hexagonal sheet precursor may prefer to form a material with its (010) crystal face preferential exposure. The theoretical results can further guide to prepare high performance Li2MnO3 center dot MO2 cathode materials for lithium ion batteries.