Removal of the 2'OH protecting group is made by the fluoro anion by the addition of 1N TBAF solution. For some chemistries a deprotection step using DBU is required to fully deprotect the oligonucleotide. While purification may be omitted, the lower coupling efficiency of RNA produces significantly lower purity than a DNA of comparable length. NAF offers anion exchange HPLC purification because of the high recovery, flexibility and reproducibility this method provides. Desalting - After ion exchange HPLC or even without purification, a desalting step is required.
High recovery is obtained by reverse phase chromatography.
The sample is eluted in organic solvent that is easily removed. Samples are usually shipped in dried form. Yield - The amount of purified material recovered is variable. The incorporation of modified units frequently lowers yield. Due to the novel nature of synthetic RNA and the complex chemistries used to produce it, characterization of the purified product may be desirable or necessary.