Utilizing the immanent chloride ions in wastewater for reactive chlorine species photogeneration towards effective ammonia nitrogen removal

[Display omitted] •C-BiOCl makes the immanent Cl– in wastewater profitable for NH4+-N removal.•Internal electric field engineering accelerates photocatalytic RCS production.•C-BiOCl structural evolution benefits Cl– oxidation instead of H2O oxidation.•RCS generation rate from Cl– over C-BiOCl reaches 0.23 mg/L min−1.•NH4+-N removal efficiency of 95.6% is realized in treating landfill leachate. Utilizing the immanent salt (Cl–) in wastewater to generate reactive chlorine species (RCS) satisfies the future needs for sustainable, on-demand, and decentralized ammonia nitrogen (NH4+-N) removal. The microstructural evolution of bismuth oxychloride (BiOCl) photocatalyst under irradiation benefits for overcoming the competition between Cl– and H2O oxidation and achieving high N2 selectivity. Herein, internal electric field (IEF) engineering by carbon doping is applied to promote photocatalytic RCS generation rate over BiOCl. The carbon dopant not only enhances the IEF intensity of BiOCl by a factor of 2.1 times for carrier dynamics promotion, but also improves Cl– oxidation against H2O oxidation. An RCS production rate of 0.23 mg/L min−1 is realized over carbon-doped BiOCl (C-BiOCl) through the accelerated interaction between lattice and environmental Cl–, which is twice that of the undoped BiOCl (0.11 mg/L min−1). The relation between IEF intensity and RCS generation rate over C-BiOCl manifests a correlation coefficient of 0.96. Effective NH4+-N degradation with N2 selectivity of >99% is validated. The system is competent in dealing with saline NH4+-N wastewater with a wide range of NH4+-N (20∼200 mg N/L) and NaCl (6∼10 g/L) concentrations. In the treatment of realistic landfill leachate (884 mg N/L NH4+-N), C-BiOCl displays a photocatalytic NH4+-N removal efficiency of up to 95.6% while maintaining the NO2−-N (∼2 mg N/L) and NO3−-N (∼40 mg N/L) levels. This system provided an interesting and innovative idea for wastewater self-purification.