Herein we report on a novel potentially dual-color photoswitchable hybrid nanosystem based on a CdS quantum dot (QD) and anthryl quinolyl ethylene (AQE) ligand where Forster resonance energy transfer from the QD to the AQE was observed and resulted in the QD fluorescence quenching and the AQE fluorescence sensitization. (C) 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.