Recently much attention has been paid to the partial oxidation of propane to acrylic acid on multicomponent mixed oxide catalysts in view of the development of a one-step industrial process. Much progress has been made in the understanding of the different parameters of the reacting systems but sufficient performance of the catalysts has still not been attained. The actual situation is described in a short overview and the remaining problems are pointed out. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.