Leveraging technology from the manufacturing firm Toto, Alcoa has added a special coating to its Reynobond architectural panels that works with the sun to neutralize pollution and dirt, enabling building facades to become self-cleaning.

Alcoa announced the product, called Reynobond with EcoClean, today and introduces it on Thursday at the American Institute of Architects' 2011 National Convention and Design Exposition in New Orleans.

The product is "the first coil-coated aluminum architectural panel that helps clean itself and the air around it," according to Alcoa Architectural Products and its president, Craig Belnap.

Alcoa first produced Reynobond architectural panels in 1989. The panels are made from large coils of painted aluminum that sandwich a continuous web of extruded polyethylene.

Known primarily in the U.S. for plumbing fixtures, ceramics manufacturing giant Toto, based in Japan, engineered its photocatalyst titanium dioxide technology called Hydrotect in 1998. The nontoxic substance produces a reaction between oxygen and humidity when exposed to natural or artificial ultraviolet light. The combination makes any surface to which the substance is applied hydrophilic, and  the water-loving surface repels dirt and oils. Toto has applied the substance to interior and exterior tiles and glass, and embedded it in paint. The firm says in a recent marketing video that Hydrotect is being used on more than 7,000 buildings around the world.

Using the technology as a jumping-off point, Alcoa has devised a way to apply a titanium dioxide coating it's calling EcoClean to the pre-painted aluminum surface of Reynobond panels. In sunlight, the panels effectively zap organic pollutants that would otherwise accumulate on the surface and the material, rendered harmless, is washed away by the rain. The panels also help cleanse the air around the surface. Here is a video showing how the Alcoa product works: