In this paper, strongly Gorenstein flat modules are introduced and investigated. An R-module M is called strongly Gorenstein flat if there is an exact sequence ⋯→P1→P0→P0→P1→⋯ of projective R-modules with M=ker (P0→P1) such that Hom(−,F) leaves the sequence exact whenever F is a flat R-module. Several well-known classes of rings are characterized in terms of strongly Gorenstein flat modules. Some examples are given to show that strongly Gorenstein flat modules over coherent rings lie strictly between projective modules and Gorenstein flat modules. The strongly Gorenstein flat dimension and the existence of strongly Gorenstein flat precovers and pre-envelopes are also studied.

Let R be a ring. A right R-module C is called a cotorsion module if Ext1R (F, C) = 0 for any flat right R-module F. In this paper, we first characterize those rings satisfying the condition that every cotorsion right (left) module is injective with respect to a certain class of right (left) ideals. Then we study relative pure-injective modules and their relations with cotorsion modules.

Let R be a ring and ℒ a class of R-modules. An R-module N is called ℒ-injective if for all L ∈ ℒ. An ℒ-injective hull of an R-module M is defined to be a homomorphism φ: M → F with F ℒ-injective such that for any monomorphism f: M → F′ with F′ ℒ-injective, there is a monomorphism g: F → F′ satisfying gφ = f. The aim of this paper is to study ℒ-injective hulls and their relations with ℒ-injective envelopes in Enochs' sense.

It is shown that if R is a right Noetherian ring whose right socle is essential as a right ideal and is contained in the left socle, then R is right Artinian. This result may be viewed as a one-sided version of a result of Ginn and Moss on two-sided Noetherian rings with essential socle. This also extends the work of Nicholson and Yousif where the same result is obtained under a stronger hypothesis. We use our work to obtain partial positive answers to some open questions on right CF, right FGF and right Johns rings.

We prove the following results for a ring R. (a) If C is a class of right R-modules closed under direct summands and isomorphisms, then every right R-module has an epic C-envelope if and only if C is closed under direct products and submodules. (b) If R is left T-coherent and pure injective as a right R-module, then every T-finitely presented right R-module has a T-flat envelope, (c) Let R be a left T-coherent ring and injective right R-modules be T-flat. If every finitely presented left R-module has a flat envelope, then every T-finitely presented right R-module has a projective cover.

We prove that (a) if R is a commutative coherent ring, the weak global dimension of R equals the supremum of the flat (or (FP–)injective) dimensions of the simple R-modules; (b) if R is right semi-artinian, the weak (respectively, the right) global dimension of R equals the supremum of the flat (respectively, projective) dimensions of the simple right R-modules; (c) if R is right semi-artinian and right coherent, the weak global dimension of R equals the supremum of the FP-injective dimensions of the simple right R-modules.