An electrochemical sensor based on 1,4-benzenedimethaneamine functionalized graphene supported palladium (GO-BDMA-Pd) nanoparticles (NPs) has been synthesized and employed as an efficient electrocatalyst for formaldehyde (HCHO) oxidation reaction (FOR). The physical characterization of the sensor has studied via transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). TEM study has revealed good dispersion of PdNPs onto the GO-BDMA surface. The electrochemical properties of the sensor for FOR have been studied by different electrochemical techniques including cyclic voltammetry, differential pulse voltammetry and chronoamperometry in 1 M KOH. The proposed sensor has shown high sensitivity, good stability and fast response to HCHO. The oxidation peak current has followed a linear relationship with the HCHO concentration in the range of 1 x 10(-6)-1.8 x 10(-2) M with limit of detection 3.5 x 10(-7) M (S/N = 3). The experimental data further reveals that the electrooxidation of HCHO by proposed GO-BDMA-Pd sensor inhibits the formation of the poisonous intermediate, such as CO. (C) The Author(s) 2016. Published by ECS. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (CC BY, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse of the work in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. All rights reserved.