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.

20 pages, accepted for publication in Journal of Algebra