Hexylammonium acetate (HAA) is an ion pairing, RP-HPLC buffer that is particularly suited for the analysis and purification of DMT-OFF oligonucleotides. The buffer, specifically the hexylamine, interacts very strongly with reversed-phase resins to give excellent separation based on oligonucleotide length. The formulation is provided at a concentration of 2.0 M that can be readily diluted twenty-fold to give a 0.1 M working solution.