Chinese scientists have developed a new fabric that can clean itself under ordinary sunlight.

The secret of the new cloth, developed by scientists from Shanghai Jiao Tong University in China, lies in a coat of nanoparticles, tech site Mashable reported.

It said the fabric includes a coat of nanoparticles made from a compound of titanium dioxide, nitrogen, silver and iodine.

The Mashable article said researchers Mingce Long and Deyong Wu published their findings in the American Chemical Society Journal Applied Material & Interfaces.

But it said the breakthrough invention will not yet be hitting retail shelves anytime soon.

Mashable cited a test experiment where the special coating was able to remove an orange stain when exposed to sunlight for just two hours.

The coating remained intact even after washing and drying, it added.