Influência da limpeza prévia por sputtering na nitreta？？o por plasma de a？os inoxidáveis

samples of iso 5832-1 stainless steel were nitrided for 2h in a gas mixture of 50% vol. n2 and 50% vol. h2 at a temperature of 420 oc. before plasma treatment, the samples were cleaned by cathodic sputtering, in the reactor, using different parameters. the following analytical techniques were used: optical microscopy (om) and microhardness. the results showed that the use of a cleaning step by sputtering prior to processing can promote significant changes in the results obtained by plasma nitriding. it was also found that the use of hydrogen as a sputtering agent causes no change in the results compared to a processing performed without this cleanup step.