Random cationic copolymer brushes composed of 2-(dimethylamino)ethyl methacrylate (DMAEMA) and N-isopropylacrylamide (NIPAAm) were synthesized using the atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) method. The effects of varying the monomer feed ratios (30:70 and 70:30 DMAEMA:NIPAAm) and polymerization times on the film height, morphology and stimuli response to pH of the brush were evaluated. While the polymerization time was found to have little influence on the properties of the brushes, the monomer feed ratios had a great impact. The 70% DMAEMA polymer brush had similar height as the 30% DMAEMA brush after 45 min; however, it had a greater response to pH and morphological change compared to the 30% DMAEMA. The 70% DMAEMA brush was used to demonstrate an efficient approach to alleviate the ion suppression effect in MALDI analysis of complex mixtures by effectively fractionating a binary mixture of peptides prior to MALDI-MS analysis. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.