Attempts have been made to explore the exact periodic and solitary wave solutions of nonlinear reaction diffusion (RD) equation involving cubic–quintic nonlinearity along with time-dependent convection coefficients. Effect of varying model coefficients on the physical parameters of solitary wave solutions is demonstrated. Depending upon the parametric condition, the periodic, double-kink, bell and antikink-type solutions for cubic–quintic nonlinear reaction-diffusion equation are extracted. Such solutions can be used to explain various biological and physical phenomena.