In this work, we investigated the photo-degradation performance of MnO2-SiC fiber-TiO2 (MnO2-SiC-TiO2) ternary nanocomposite according to visible light excitation utilizing methylene blue (MB) and methyl orange (MO) as standard dyes. The photocatalytic physicochemical characteristics of this ternary nanocomposite were described by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), tunneling electron microscopy (TEM), ultraviolet-visible (UV-vis), diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS), electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), photocurrent and cyclic voltammogram (CV) test. Photolysis studies of the synthesized MnO2-SiC-TiO2 composite were conducted using standard dyes of MB and MO under UV light irradiation. The experiments revealed that the MnO2-SiC-TiO2 exhibits the greatest photocatalytic dye degradation performance of around 20 % with MB, and of around 10 % with MO, respectively, within 120 min. Furthermore, MnO2-SiC-TiO2 showed good stability against photocatalytic degradation. The photocatalytic efficiency of the nanocomposite was indicated by the adequate photocatalytic reaction process. These research results show the practical application potential of SiC fibers and the performance of a photocatalyst composite that combines these fibers with metal oxides.

Carbon fiber was reacted with gaseous silicon monoxide which is produced from pack-powder mixture at elevated temperature. As a result of the reaction, two kinds of SiC fiber were obtained. The first one was SiC fibers which were converted from carbon fiber. The fiber is constituted with polycrystal like fine grains or monolithic crystals that have a size from sub-micron to 10 μm. Their size depends on the temperature during the conversion reaction. The second one was ultra-fine SiC fibers that were found on the surface of the converted SiC fibers. The ultra-fine fibers have diameters from 0.08 to 0.2 μm and their aspect ratio were larger than 100. The chemical composit ion of the ultra-fine fibers was analyzed using an Auger electron spectroscopy. In result, the fibers consist of 51% silicon, 38% carbon and 11% oxygen by weight.