We have investigated the effect of water (H2O) cooling and heat treatment on the luminescence efficiency of core CdSe quantum dots (QDs). The photoluminescence (PL) quantum yield of the CdSe QDs was enhanced up to ~85%, and some periodic bright points were observed in wide color ranges during the heat treatment of QDs mixed with H2O. The PL enhancement of QDs could be attributed to the recovery of QDs surface traps by unreacted ligands confined within the hydrophilic H2O molecule containers.