TPS/TPC blends (Fig. 4) showed a mass loss in the temperature ranges of 25–160 °C, 160–500 °C and 500–600 °C, respectively due to free water evaporation, water and glycerol (Cyras et al., 2008) volatilization, and decomposition of starch and chitosan (Pelissari et al., 2009).3.5. Mechanical propertiesThe tensile strength, elongation at break and elastic modulus of pure thermoplastic polymers and are shown in Table 2. Fig. 5 shows representative stress–strain curves of these polymers and blends. These curves display the typical stress–strain behavior of plasticized starch-based polymers and blends in which the lowest part of the curve displays a plastic behavior at deformations lower than 1%, followed by a plastic zone until sample rupture.