This paper is an analysis of flow of MHD CNTs of second grade nano-fluid under the influence of first order chemical reaction, suction, thermal generation and magnetic field. The fluid is flowing through a porous medium. For the study of heat and mass transfer, we applied the newly introduced differential operators to model such flow. The equations for heat, mass and momentum are established in the terms of Caputo (C), Caputo–Fabrizio (CF) and Atangana–Baleanu in Caputo sense (ABC) fractional derivatives. This shows the novelty of this work. The equations for heat, mass and momentum are established in the terms of Caputo (C), Caputo–Fabrizio (CF) and Atangana–Baleanu in Caputo sense (ABC) fractional derivatives. The solutions are evaluated by employing Laplace transform and inversion algorithm. The flow in momentum profile due to variability in the values of parameters are graphically illustrated among C, CF and ABC models. It is concluded that fluid velocity showed decreasing behavior for χ, P, ℏ2, Mo, Pr, ℵ and Sc while it showed increasing behavior for Gr, Gm, κ and Ao. Moreover, ABC fractional operator presents larger memory effect than C and CF fractional operators.