Mothers with kids are all too familiar with seemingly endless laundry cycles and clothes continuously piling up in hampers. The idea of self-cleaning clothes might not be that far off in the future, as researchers have already developed self-cleaning fabrics.

Here's how the process works:

• The coating process worked by placing pieces of cotton fabric in liquid-based titanium dioxide for 30 seconds then transferring them to an oven where they were heated to 97 degrees Celsius for 15 minutes. Lastly, they were placed in boiling water for three hours.

• The main obstacle researchers had to overcome was making sure the particles had the precise arrangement of atoms that would help trigger the acceleration of the particles.

• It was discovered that as long as it was exposed to sunlight, titanium dioxide would continue to break down dirt into tinier particles, like carbon dioxide and water.

The inventors expressed their goals were to turn these fabrics into self-cleaning clothes that would help fight dirt, airborne pollutants and dangerous microorganisms.

New Scientist June 14, 2004