The simple fluorous phosphoramidite Fluorous Propanol CE-Phosphoramidite does not have a DMT group and is installed permanently at the 5'-terminus of an oligonucleotide. This reagent serves two purposes: (1) it is a simple way to install a permanent fluorous tag, which may be useful for many purposes including immobilization of the oligonucleotide onto a fluorous glass slide, increasing the hydrophobicity of an oligonucleotide, and or as a mass tag; and (2) this phosphoramidite may be used in the capping steps of oligonucleotide synthesis. When used in the capping steps of oligonucleotide synthesis, the full-length oligonucleotide does not have a fluorous tag incorporated. The failure sequences, however, are capped with a fluorous handle and can easily be removed by capture on fluorous or RP media since fluorous-tagged oligonucleotides are retained strongly on fluorous or RP-HPLC adsorbents, more so than molecules that bear dyes or normal DMT groups.