[bigideaguy]

Please note that my field of study is computer science and I was never good in chemistry so please excuse me if my question seems dumb or noobish

I have this ink like substance or liquid which I only have one batch of left, it is not something patented or anything, but no one is making this substance anymore and I would like to figure out what it might be made up of so that I could potentially create something with similar properties. Is there a way I could try to figure out what the ingredients might be?

Thanks for your help, if this isn't possible just let me know and I will crawl back to my IT forums

[Arkcon]

What you need is an analytical chemist.  There are any of a number of physical and chemical texts that could be performed to understand an unknown sample.  Full characterization can get expensive.  Also, you will have to define the sample very well.  There's a meme out there that analytical chemists sit behind banks of instruments dying for the opportunity to analyze and characterize any sample with no input other than "Here it is."  That is not how its done.  You will have to give some idea of:  where it came from, what it does, what properties are significant for your application, how much can be destroyed in the analysis, etc.  before an analytical chemist can help you.

[LigteV]

Go to your nearest university and i bet they will help you. As an analytical chemist its refreshing to do something different from time to time. One last thing if you have a hot sister let her take the sample and not...