Background Wound dressings are divided into traditional and new types. The new dressings are thought to accelerate wound healing. The purpose of this study was to supplement the scanty data on the absorbency of the new dressings and their effects on evaporation from the burn surface.Methods The water absorption rate of four dressings (carbon fiber dressing, hydrogel dressing, silver nanoparticle dressing, and vaseline gauze) were measured by the immersion-weight gain method. A total of 120 inpatients with 10%superficial partial-thickness burn wounds were randomly assigned to four groups, each with 30 participants. Carbon fiber dressing, hydrogel dressing, and silver nanoparticle dressing were used in groups A, B, and C as the primary dressing,and traditional vaseline gauze was used in group D as the control. Multi-spot evaporation from normal skin and naked wound, and from wounds covered with each of the four dressings was measured post-burn on days 1, 3, 5, and 7 by an EP-I evaporimeter under conditions of 21 ℃ -22 ℃ ambient temperature and 74%-78% humidity.Results The absorption rates of the four dressings were 988% with carbon fiber dressing, 96% with silver nanoparticle,41% with vaseline gauze, and 6% with hydrogel. Evaporation from the naked burn wounds was about 1/3 higher than from normal skin (P＜0.01). Compared with wounds without applied dressing, evaporation from dressed wounds decreased and was time-dependent (P＜0.01). The evaporation of wounds with carbon fiber dressing was the lowest ((13.40±2.82)ml·h-1·m-2,P＜0.01) on day 1 post-burn,compared with the other groups.Conclusion All four dressings have water retention capacity while carbon fiber dressing has the highest absorption rate and shows the best containment and evaporation from the burn wound.