An intense band was observed at 3645 cm− 1 in the case of all samples (Fig. 3a–h) except the reference CaCO3 (Fig. 3i), due to the vibration of the OH groups attached to Ca2 +. This fact could be attributed to the OH group vibrations of the bound H2O on the surface of the solid samples. Moreover, the band at 1648 cm− 1 confirmed the adsorption of water on the sample surface [40]. The major bands occurred at 1416 and 874 cm− 1, which could be assigned to asymmetric stretch and out-of plane bend vibration modes for CO32 −, respectively [41]. Accordingly, surface carbonate species derived from the interaction between the surface basic sites and atmosphere CO2 were observed, which was more obvious for the samples calcined at higher temperature.