Extrusion blow molding of a starch–gelatin polymer matrix reinforced with cellulose

•Starch–gelatin polymer matrix with cellulose was characterized to determine their viscoelastic behavior and thermal stability.•Starch–gelatin polymer matrix can be successfully used as a polymer matrix and be processed by extrusion blow molding.•Cellulose addition improved dimensional stability and mechanical properties of blown materials.

This work investigated the possibility of using hydrolyzed corn starch–gelatin as a base matrix and cellulose as reinforcement, to produce containers by extrusion blow molding. First, the compounds were characterized by dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) to determine their viscoelastic behavior and thermal stability. The results showed that the most suitable processing temperature should be less than 120 °C to avoid degradation. Furthermore, the addition of cellulose decreased the viscosity of the starch–gelatin polymer matrix allowing the compounds to be processed at temperatures as low as 100 °C. Then, parisons were obtained by extrusion blow molding and presented suitable processing characteristics. Overall, the best containers were found to have 44% higher energy at break and better dimensional stability when cellulose was added.

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