Electroless ternary NiCeP deposits were prepared from alkaline citrate bath containing nickel sulphate, cerium chloride and sodium hypophosphite. Concentration of rare earth cerium was varied from 1 to 2 g/L to obtain ternary deposits containing variable Ce and P contents. The influence of cerium on the deposit properties was analysed. The deposit exhibited a maximum cerium content of 6.2 +/- 0.1 wt.% when the cerium chloride concentration was 2 g/L. The result of the Pd stability test showed that the stability of the bath was reduced due to Ce salt addition. The microhardness measurements made on both as-plated and heat treated samples exhibited a peak hardness of 1006 +/- 11 VHN for cerium concentration of 1.5 g/L. The concept of kinetic strength analysis was proved to be applicable only for binary and not for ternary alloys due to multistep deposition mechanism with different kinetic energies. X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns of as-plated and heat treated samples revealed peaks corresponding to Ni (1 1 1) and nickel phosphide (Ni3P). Higher amount of Ce incorporation in NiP matrix increased the crystallisation temperature of the deposit which could be due to the suppression of nickel crystallisation prior to Ni3P compound formation and thus increasing the activation energy for the formation of stable phases. Surface compositional analysis using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) carried out on as-plated NiCeP-2 deposit showed a prominent peak of P existing in +1 oxidation state as higher alkalinity favoured hypophosphite deposition in the ternary alloy coating. It was observed that the co-deposition of Ce in NiP matrix improved the continuous salt spray exposure for 168 h. (C) 2012 Elsevier B. V. All rights reserved.