a b s t r a c tThe ground-state energies of one-electron homonuclear quasi-molecules for the nuclear charge number in the range Z ¼ 1 À 100 at the ''chemical'' distances R ¼ 2=Z (in a.u.) are calculated. The calculations are performed for both point-and extended-charge nucleus cases using the Dirac-Fock-Sturm approach with the basis functions constructed from the one-center Dirac-Sturm orbitals. The critical distances R cr , at which the ground-state level reaches the edge of the negative-energy Dirac continuum, are calculated for homonuclear quasi-molecules in the range: 85 6 Z 6 100. It is found that in case of U 183þ 2 the critical distance R cr ¼ 38:42 fm for the point-charge nuclei and R cr ¼ 34:72 fm for extended nuclei.