No. 09/516,136 filed Mar. 1, 2000, it has been found that by reacting the ???OH groups at the edges of clay platelets with a coupling agent, to form coupling agent covalent bonds at the clay edges, the clay becomes much more receptive to intercalation of such non-polar and low polarity oligomers and polymers, particularly polyolefins such as ethylene and propylene homopolymers and copolymers.