A novel one-dimensional on-line pH gradient-eluted strong cation exchange (SCX)-nano-ESI-MS/MS method was developed for protein identification and tested with mixture of six standard proteins, total lysate of HuH7 and N2a cells, as well as membrane fraction of N2a cells. This method utilized an on-line nano-flow SCX column in a nano-LC system coupled with a nano-electrospray high-resolution mass spectrometer. Protein digests were separated on a nano-flow SCX column with a pH gradient and directly introduced into a mass spectrometer through nano-electrospray ionization. SCXLC-MS/MS showed identification capability for higher proportion of basic peptides compared to RPLC-MS/MS method, especially for histidine-containing peptides. Our SCXLC-MS/MS method is an excellent alternative method to the RPLC-MS/MS method for analysis of standard proteins, total cell and membrane proteomes.