This paper is concerned with the three-dimensional rotating flow of nanofluid induced by a convectively heated deformable surface. The base fluid is treated as water while three different types of nanoparticles namely copper oxide-CuO, copper-Cu and silver-Ag are analyzed. Two different models for effective thermal conductivity of nanofluids are employed. A self-similar form of the governing differential system is formulated via adequate transformations. Shooting approach combined with fifth order Runge-Kutta method is used to determine the velocity and temperature distributions above the sheet. Our computations reveal that skin friction coefficient has direct relationship with the volume fraction of nanoparticles. Further the surface heat transfer rate is an increasing function of the solid volume fraction of nanoparticles. Sketch for three-dimensional streamlines is also obtained and discussed for a particular case. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.