Gelatin extracted from chromium-tanned leather wastes (CTLW) has a lower molar mass because of the more aggressive extraction process needed to disrupt chromium-collagen bonds when compared to gelatin extracted from the bones, skin, and connective tissues of animals. As a consequence, CTLW gelatin is more hydrophilic, thus it is harder to apply in the production of polymers. To overcome this issue, in this study, films produced with starch, CTLW gelatin, commercial gelatin (as a comparative), and their blends were cross-linked with glutaraldehyde. The cross-linking reduced the crystallinity of the films, impairing the reorganization of gelatin chains into a triple helix structure, which balanced the effect of the higher molecular chain, while not altering the films’ tensile strength. It increased the elongation at break and reduced the solubility and the swelling degree by up to 53% and 69%, respectively. These results stand as a great advance for the practical use of starch-CTLW gelatin films.

从铬鞣制皮革废料（CTLW）中提取的明胶具有较低的摩尔质量，因为与从动物的骨骼，皮肤和结缔组织中提取的明胶相比，破坏铬-胶原蛋白键所需的提取过程更为激进。结果，CTLW明胶更亲水，因此更难应用于聚合物的生产中。为了克服这个问题，在这项研究中，将由淀粉，CTLW明胶，商业明胶（作为比较）及其混合物制成的薄膜与戊二醛交联。交联降低了薄膜的结晶度，损害了明胶链重组为三螺旋结构，从而平衡了较高分子链的作用，同时不改变薄膜的拉伸强度。它增加了断裂伸长率，并使溶解度和溶胀度分别降低了53％和69％。这些结果为淀粉-CTLW明胶膜的实际应用提供了巨大的进步。