Abstract Purpose The current work presents a theoretical framework to boost heat transmission in a ternary hybrid nanofluid with homogeneous and heterogeneous reactions in the conical gap between the cone and disk apparatus. Furthermore, the impacts of non-linear thermal radiation on the ternary hybrid nanofluid composed of white graphene, diamond, and titanium dioxide dispersed in water are analyzed. Originality/value The combination of cone and disk systems is crucial for designing efficient heat exchange devices in the field of biomedical science for various purposes. For instance, in medical devices, the cone–disk apparatus is used to study the flow and heat transfer characteristics for better design and functionality. Hence, a sincere attempt has been made to study the impact of homogeneous and heterogeneous reactions on the nanofluid flow between the cone and disk in the presence of non-linear thermal radiation. Design/methodology/approach The mathematical model’s governing equations are partial differential equations (PDEs) which are then transformed into non-linear ordinary differential equations through appropriate similarity transformations. These transformed resultant equations are approximated by the Runge–Kutta–Fehlberg fourth/fifth order (RKF45) technique. The influence of essential aspects on the flow field, heat, and mass transfer rates was analyzed using a graphical representation. Findings The interesting part of this research is to discuss the power of parameters in three cases, namely, (1) rotating cone/disk, (2) rotating cone/stationary disk, and (3) stationary cone/rotating disk. Furthermore, the thermal variation of the fluid is analyzed by an artificial neural network with the help of the Levenberg–Marquardt backpropagation algorithm. The regression analysis, mean square error, and error histogram of the neural network are analyzed using this algorithm. From the graph, it is perceived that the flow field climbed up significantly with an increase in the values of radiation parameters in all cases. Also, it is noticed that temperature upsurges significantly by upward values of solid volume fraction of the nanoparticles ( ϕ \phi ).