We introduce and investigate the notion of envelope dimension of commutative rings and modules over them. In particular, we show that the envelope dimension of a ring, $R$, is equal to that of the $R$-module $R^{(\mathbb{N})}$. Also we prove that the Krull dimension of a ring is no more than its envelope dimension and characterize Noetherian rings for which these two dimensions are equal. Moreover we generalize and study the concept of simplified radical formula for modules, which we defined in an earlier paper.

Let $R$ be a commutative ring with identity, and let $M$ be a unitary module over $R$. We call $M$ H-smaller (HS for short) if and only if $M$ is infinite and $|M/N|<|M|$ for every nonzero submodule $N$ of $M$. After a brief introduction, we show that there exist nontrivial examples of HS modules of arbitrarily large cardinality over Noetherian and non-Noetherian domains. We then prove the following result: suppose $M$ is faithful over $R$, $R$ is a domain (we will show that we can restrict to this case without loss of generality), and $K$ is the quotient field of $R$. If $M$ is HS over $R$, then $R$ is HS as a module over itself, $R\subseteq M\subseteq K$, and there exists a generating set $S$ for $M$ over $R$ with $|S|<|R|$. We use this result to generalize a problem posed by Kaplansky and conclude the paper by answering an open question on Jónsson modules.

The zero-divisor graph $\Gamma(R)$ of a commutative ring $R$ is the graph whose vertices consist of the nonzero zero-divisors of $R$ such that distinct vertices $x$ and $y$ are adjacent if and only if $xy=0$. In this paper, a characterization is provided for zero-divisor graphs of Boolean rings. Also, commutative rings $R$ such that $\Gamma(R)$ is isomorphic to the zero-divisor graph of a direct product of integral domains are classified, as well as those whose zero-divisor graphs are central vertex complete.