Market and product

Laundry detergent could become obsolete with a new textile coating that sheds stains with just a rinse

With a new fabric coating, a splotch of ketchup on a shirt or a smudge of engine oil on a pair of pants can easily be cleaned with a simple rinse. By eliminating the need for detergent and the standard water-intensive washing process, the innovative spray-on polyelectrolyte multilayer coating could reduce the water, time, and energy used in laundering by over 80%.

The new coating consists of five alternating layers of polydiallyldimethylammonium chloride (PDADMAC) and polyvinylsulfonic acid that are sprayed onto a fabric. This process creates bilayers with a high surface density of sulfonate groups that prevent stains from adhering to the material’s fibers (Commun. Chem. 2026, DOI: 10.1038/s42004-026-01942-7).

“In earlier studies, we found that densely charged surfaces can stabilize a robust hydration layer,” says author Chongling Cheng of Southeast University in Nanjing, China. “That made us rethink a basic assumption in cleaning. Instead of trying to remove contaminants after they attach, could we make them less likely to stick in the first place?”

In tests, the coating worked on cotton, silk, and polyester, demonstrating its compatibility with natural and synthetic fibers. The coating also exhibited antimicrobial and antibacterial properties and was found to bind to microplastics, reducing their release into the environment.

“While multilayers are already successfully applied in high-fouling applications such as membrane filtration, I had never thought of a role in self-cleaning fabrics,” says Wiebe M. de Vos of the University of Twente, who was not involved with the study. “I am certainly impressed with the performance, and I like how the authors demonstrate the versatility of the coating by applying it to different fabrics and stains.”

Because multilayers typically degrade from mechanical wear and exposure to surfactants, the study tested clothes through 100 rinses, folding 2,000 times, and sandpaper abrasion. The stain resistance held up through testing, even outperforming washing with detergents. The coating, however, doesn’t yet work against contaminants that contain hard particles, such as fine sand, because they mechanically damage the coating.

The coating isn’t cheap—about 50 cents per square meter, roughly the amount needed for a T-shirt. But the price would be more than offset over the lifetime of clothing, the researchers say, by the savings in detergent and laundering costs.

The researchers also conducted safety tests with mouse cells to ensure the coating is safe for skin contact and with red beans to demonstrate the coating’s release into the environment doesn’t harm plant matter. There are few environmental concerns over the coating components, as they are well studied and considered nontoxic (PDADMAC is even used industrially for water treatment and papermaking). But a full life-cycle assessment is needed to ensure that the creation of the coating is less environmentally impactful than laundry detergent, says Bernd Nowack of Empa, also known as the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Testing and Research, who was not involved with the study.

Though some things remain to be investigated, overall the approach is promising, Nowack says. “At first sight, it looks like a game changer.”