We investigate the properties of pure derived categories of module
categories, and show that pure derived categories share many nice properties of
classical derived categories. In particular, we show that bounded pure derived
categories can be realized as certain homotopy categories. We introduce the
pure projective (resp. injective) dimension of complexes in pure derived
categories, and give some criteria for computing these dimensions in terms of
the properties of pure projective (resp. injective) resolutions and pure
derived functors. As a consequence, we get some equivalent characterizations
for the finiteness of the pure global dimension of rings. Finally, pure
projective (resp. injective) resolutions of unbounded complexes are considered.Comment: 20 pages, accepted for publication in Journal of Algebr