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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 August 2017
This paper summarizes our understanding of the dominant D-reservoirs in molecular clouds and suggests possible direct determinations of the D-abundance. It is concluded that rotational HD lines from shock regions provide the best way to determine the gas phase D-abundance. In cold dense cores, the dominant gas phase D-reservoir is likely to be atomic D, because of expected inefficient HD formation on grain surfaces. The gas phase D-abundance derived from observations of dense cores is ≍5 × 10-6/n4 (with n4 the total density in units of 104 cm−3). A large fraction of the D (≍50%) may be locked up in deuterated molecules in grain mantles. A small fraction (≍2%) may be locked up in the photolyzed residues of such grain mantles. PAHs will also be deuterated (PADs), containing ≍1% of the D. Finally, it is likely that all of these processes have contributed to the D-enrichment observed in solar system materials.