Toward transparent rigid packaging from sugarcane bagasse: a consistency-testing framework for nanocellulose-chitosan sheets

Abstract

A theoretical and computational study. No experiments were performed; every parameter range is traced to a cited source or stated as an assumption, and every output is a screening estimate rather than a prediction of material behaviour. Prepared for submission to Cellulose (Springer). Version 1.1.0 responds to review. Three consistency screens (optical, wet stiffness, forming) are applied to a proposed bagasse CNF-chitosan-wax architecture and propagated through a seeded Monte Carlo analysis (200,000 samples, seed 20261002). New in 1.1.0. (1) Optical-model validation: rough-surface and coarse-population scattering are added as bounded sensitivities; they narrow but do not close the gap to the haze of published clear nanopaper, and they show the correlation-length threshold is necessary, not sufficient. (2) Seven prior schemes: pass shares move by tens of percentage points; the thresholds, the orderings and the cup bound do not. (3) Thickness coupling: stiffness sets a minimum wall thickness (median 75 um neutral, 99 um acidic) and thickness sets the haze, so the liquid changes the optical budget. (4) A bounded wax-layer sensitivity: added haze and, for coating before forming, a narrower forming window; liquid containment remains untested, so all feasibility results are provisional. (5) The cup needs a flange wrinkling strain above 0.64 (strain budgets: tray 0.26, bowl 0.67, cup 1.10). (6) A final reference audit, figure-data tables, a Data availability statement and a revised AI-use statement. The verification suite grows from 43 to 58 checks. Results of version 1.0.0 are unchanged. Every figure is a bounded model estimate, not a measured or predicted material property.