"Super sponge" has been developed by scientists from the University of Minnesota College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Sciences (CFANS) and this can remove mercury, a known water pollutant, from any water source in a matter of seconds. The sponge can suck up mercury from polluted water sources such as lakes, industrial wastewater systems and even from tap water and converts the mercury into a non-toxic substance which can be removed and disposed in a landfill. Professor Abdennour Abbas and his team said that the "super sponge" can also kill bacterial and fungi which can cause water-borne illness.

The discovery of the "super sponge" could revive polluted water systems especially in St. Paul, Minnesota, Science Daily reported. Scientists claimed that a "super sponge" the size of a basketball may be able to clean up mercury from Lake Como which has levels exceeding the EPA limit. Around two thirds of water systems found in Minnesota have mercury levels surpassing the EPA limit. Because of this, fish caught from lakes in the state is not advisable for consumption.

Another "super sponge" was also developed by a team of researchers from the University of Chicago headed by Seth Darling. But instead of mercury, this sponge can remove oil from water and can even remove oil from water columns; something that was never done before, Inverse reported. Darling said that their "super sponge" uses sequential infiltration synthesis to remove oil beyond the surface. The sponge can be used and reused and has been poised as a new technique for cleaning up oil spills.

The oil spill "super sponge" hopes to replace techniques such as skimming, burning or using chemical dispersants to remove oil from oceans. The sponge is currently being tested and Darling and his team plans to clean up oil spills with the use of a bigger sponge; it will be dragged across the water like a fishing net and then wrung out to be used again.