Implementation of optical refrigeration (OR) in quantum dot (QD) materials was achieved for the first time. An OR experiment was designed and carried out in our lab and a maximum temperature drop around 0.68 K was observed in the zinc-blende crystalline CdSe/CdS (core/shell structure) QD samples under laser excitation. The cooling effect was achieved by utilizing the energy up-conversion photoluminescence (PL) of CdSe/CdS QDs with sub-band excitation. While the cooling efficiency of the system was estimated and optimized by a semi-empirical model built during this research. <div><br></div><div>This work has proved the capability of QD materials to be used as a cooling substance for OR, which significantly expanded the possible candidates for OR. The technique could have many applications, such as harvesting cooling effect from sun light with the help of metamaterials, which can produce quasi-monochromatic light. It may also be used to cool QD in optical traps, which leading may help to develop new ultra-sensitive sensors and application for quantum information science.</div>