Self-cleaning clothing may sound like science-fiction but scientists in China have been experimenting and their labours are beginning to bear fruit.

According to a report on the BBC News Technology website, the treatment, which involves coating cotton materials with chemicals that cause them to clean themselves of stains and smells when exposed to sunlight, is "cheap, non-toxic and ecologically friendly."

The chemical under scrutiny is titanium dioxide, already in use for self-cleaning windows, self-cleaning kitchen and bathroom tiles, and odour-free socks. Odour-free socks! Isn’t it annoying when you only find out about such things after Christmas?

At first it didn’t work. Well, it did, but only under ultraviolet light (not wildly available in your average home).

So the scientists did some science-y stuff (I hope I’m not getting too technical for you here) creating a "nanoparticle alcohol-based compound made up of titanium dioxide and nitrogen" and guess what?

No, it didn’t work just like that, and so they did some more messing around, waited a bit, added some silver iodide particles... more stuff... a bit more fiddling... and, in the end, when they thought they’d got it sorted, they put some orange dye* on a shirt, left it in the sun for a couple of hours, and what do you know? 71% of the stain had gone!

It’s all good news. But until self-cleaning clothes become widely available on the High Street why not try BigGreenSmile’s wide range of eco-friendly laundry products, many of which can beat that 71%.

* (Try to keep orange dye away from your clothes, unless they happen to be orange).

[Image: Joost J. Bakker IJmuiden]