Summers might just become more comfortable and less smelly experience, as IIT-Delhi in partnership with an industrial firm has developed a fabric that cuts out smell and keeps it fresh for the wearer despite sweating.

Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi’s SMITA (*Smart* Materials and Innovative Textile Applications) research lab has developed a nano-science based innovation that lends a fabric antimicrobial property, resulting in removal of smell despite presence of perspiration on it.

A fabric smells because of the presence of microbes on it. And our innovation based on nanosilver counters the microbial growth and thus keeps the fabric fresh for the wearer even though he or she may still be sweating, team member Ashwini K Agrawal, professor at IIT-Delhi said.

A nano-scale is one billionth part in a metric system or the scale of 10 raised to the power of minus 9. The finished product which has now gone commercial in India and European markets was exhibited at the I2Tech Open House, organized recently at the IIT-Delhi campus.

Silver is known to have antimicrobial properties and we just took it to the nano-scale and embedded the particles (less than 1-ppm or parts per million) so that the fabric retains its original color and character, Agrawal said.

Agrawal worked on the project alongside fellow faculty member Manjeet Jassal and then PhD student Sangita Paul. The idea began in 2007.