Nanofluids are developing fluids with improved thermal properties than the traditional fluids. The use of nanofluids achieves the maximum possible thermal performance with the smallest possible concentration by uniform dispersion and constant suspension of the nanoparticles in the base fluid. Nanofluid plays a decisive role in different thermal applications, such as the automotive industry, heat exchangers and solar power generation. The purpose of this article is to provide the mathematical formulation for the nanofluid and to simulate the use of nanoparticles to increase the heat transfer rate of solar equipment by obtaining the exact solutions for the problem under consideration. Furthermore, the fluid is considered to pass through a rigid inclined plane. The classical model of nanofluid is transformed into a fractional model using the newly developed Atangana–Baleanu time fractional derivative. The Laplace transform method is used to represent the flow profile and the heat transfer profile. Variations in the Nusselt number have been observed for different nanoparticles and their volume fractions. In addition, the influence of the volume fraction of nanoparticles on the fluid velocity has been studied in the illustrations. The obtained solutions are reduced to the corresponding solutions for the classical model of the nanofluid.