Display omitted Our main focus here is to analyze the chemically reactive flow of Prandtl–Eyring nanofluid. Flow is caused by linear stretching of sheet. Heat transfer characteristics are examined subject to nonlinear radiative flux and heat source/sink. Moreover Joule heating and dissipation effects are considered. Entropy optimization is expressed as a function of temperature, velocity and concentration. Total entropy has been calculated. Buongiorno nanofluid model which incorporates important slip mechanisms like Brownian motion and thermophoresis diffusion is used. Chemical reaction is considered along with activation energy. Suitable transformations are implemented to convert the governing expressions into ordinary one. Built-in-shooting technique is used for the solution development. Results for the velocity, entropy, temperature, Bejan number and concentration are presented graphically. Particular attention is given to quantities of engineering interests such as skin friction coefficient and Nusselt and Sherwood numbers.