The answer to every bachelor’s prayers could be just around the corner – bed linen that cleans itself.
And it gets even better. Clothes that never get dirty will make trips to the dry cleaners or laundrette a thing of the past.
The same technology could be used to develop self-washing cars and permanently shiny kitchen floors and worktops.
Scientists have pioneered a fabric that makes dirt disappear when exposed to sunlight.
It was discovered by Walid Daoud and John Xin of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University.
They developed a coating for fabrics which reacts with the air to remove dirt and grime.
Although the technology behind the breakthrough could transform the way we live, it sounds remarkably simple.
The fabric is coated with tiny particles of titanium dioxide, which is more commonly used in toothpaste. Its particles are just 20 nanometers across – about 2,500 times smaller than the width of a human hair.
When they are exposed to sunlight, the particles react with oxygen in the air.
This turns them into an oxidising agent, breaking down dirt and pollution into smaller particles – such as carbon dioxide and water.
The catalyst carries on working as long as it is exposed to sunlight.
The researchers managed to cover cotton patches with the coating by dipping them into a liquid slurry of titanium dioxide.
After removing them, padding them dry and heating them to 97oC in an oven for 15 minutes, the patches were successfully insulated from dirt. The complex process means mass-producing these self-cleaning clothes could be some way off yet.